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Regulation

Groups Partner to Examine Bitcoin’s Blockchain Application in Securitization Markets

Partners tout benefits of blockchain platforms to help industry comply with regulations, among other benefits.

By Chuck Epstein

The Chamber of Digital Commerce, the world’s largest trade association representing the blockchain industry, and the Structured Finance Industry Group (SFIG) have formed a strategic partnership focused on advancing the use of blockchain technology in securitization markets.

The new partnership kicked off at a meeting in Las Vegas accompanied by the publication of a white paper, “Applying Blockchain in Securitization: Opportunities for Reinvention,” and a series of educational activities.

Blockchain is an open-source software that can be used to facilitate financial operations and transaction processing. Blockchain uses a public ledger of all Bitcoin transactions. It is constantly growing as “completed” blocks are added to it — in a linear, chronological order — with a new set of recordings.

The white paper detailed five benefits of blockchain technology, including:  

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  • It provides a single, consistent information source to anyone in its network.
  • It delivers a chronological audit trail that cannot be changed. This is especially beneficial for loan origination to primary issuance, servicing, and changes in ownership in the secondary market.
  • It provides improved valuation and price discovery since it is transparent. This reduces information asymmetry and network disadvantages that some smaller entities encounter in the securitization business.
  • It provides simultaneous recording of information across the system. This eliminates time delays in the flow of information and payments in the securitization process, including in the secondary market.
  • It is secure and can mitigate fraud to preserve data quality.

Perianne Boring, founder and president of the Chamber of Digital Commerce, said the securitization process “is an ideal candidate for the efficiencies of distributed ledger technology.”

“Blockchain platforms enable the market to more efficiently comply with regulations, while at the same time allowing automation to create significant efficiencies for the role of the regulator itself. Our partnership with SFIG is an opportunity to accelerate the understanding and adoption of blockchain technology in this sector,” Boring said.

According to the group, financial institutions worldwide have invested more than a billion dollars in blockchain, and most big banks will have begun blockchain projects by the end of 2017. “There are already hundreds of use cases, ranging from international payments to securities processing, and major technology firms are offering a host of blockchain services aimed at the financial industry,” the group said.

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Home > News > Manager Selection > Cambridge Associates Expands Senior Pension Team
Manager Selection

Cambridge Associates Expands Senior Pension Team

Jeff Blazek rejoins firm as a managing director and chief investment officer within the firm’s pension practice.

By Amrita Sareen-Tak

 

Cambridge Associates has expanded its senior team, hiring Jeff Blazek as a managing director and chief investment officer within the firm’s pension practice.  

“Cambridge has seen increased demand from pensions and other institutions for outsourced portfolio management services,” a representative at Cambridge Associates told CIO. “We have always been committed to ensuring that we have the resources, structure, and team in place to best serve our clients, investing in high-quality talent across our key growth areas.”

Blazek worked as a managing director at the firm’s Dallas office for nearly six years until 2014. In this role, he focused on Cambridge’s pension practice model and its proprietary pension risk management framework.

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“We are thrilled to welcome Jeff back to Cambridge Associates,” Sona Menon, managing director and head of North American Pensions at Cambridge Associates, said in a press release. “As a highly experienced investment professional, Jeff will help us serve our growing client base, including those plan sponsors and other institutional asset pools that are increasingly turning to us for discretionary portfolio management. Jeff is joining a great roster of CIOs at Cambridge Associates who work across our discretionary global client base.”

Most recently, Blazek served within the office of investments as a managing director at New York-Presbyterian Hospital. In this capacity, he was involved in the decision-making process across the investment portfolio, including global equities, fixed income, and with senior oversight for hedge funds and asset allocation.

Previously, he acted as principal and portfolio manager at the Teacher Retirement System of Texas.

Headquartered in Boston, Cambridge has about $142 billion and $20 billion in assets under advisement and management, respectively.

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