Paris – 11 July 2017 – BNP Paribas, CACEIS, Caisse des Dépôts, Euroclear, Euronext, S2iEM and Société Générale with the support of Paris EUROPLACE announce the creation of the European fintech venture LiquidShare. This new independent startup is the fruit of a partnership launched by its shareholders in June 2016 to develop a post-trading blockchain infrastructure for the Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) market.
LiquidShare is a dynamic and innovative company which core objective is to improve SME’s access to capital markets, improving the transparency and security of post-trading operations using blockchain. With the financial support of its shareholders, the company aims to develop and operate a post-trading infrastructure that will serve these companies specifically. Eventually, the solution aims to reduce transaction costs.
LiquidShare will be set up shortly in a Parisian incubator where it will employ various profiles to implement the platform. The startup will be led by Thibaud de Maintenant, who is named Chief Executive Officer of the company. In close cooperation with its large institutional partners, Thibaud de Maintenant will combine functional and technical expertise with innovative solutions to work towards the company’s goal.
At the launch, he commented: “With the launch of LiquidShare, we will use the great potential of the blockchain technology to become a key player in the post-trade industry. Supported by shareholders across the European financial market ecosystem, this initiative is the first of its kind.”
In addition, Anthony Attia, Managing Board member of Euronext, is appointed Chairman of the Supervisory Board of LiquidShare.
LiquidShare harnesses blockchain technology that consists of a virtual ledger that assembles data for shared distribution between many different users. This technology has the potential to dramatically simplify the chain of post-trade operations, guaranteeing and facilitating the consolidation of securities registers, all while enabling a higher speed of execution with real-time settlement at T+0.
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Biography of Thibaud de Maintenant
Thibaud de Maintenant graduated from the Business Administration Institute of Paris and from the National Superior Engineering School of Caen. He began his career in the 1990s as an auditor at Mazars in Paris, before joining Clearnet SA in Paris, where he became Vice President four years later. In 2000, he joined Deutsche Bank in London as Head of Securities Services of Western Europe. Five years later, he was named Head of Direct Securities Services (DSS) for the Asia-Pacific region in Singapore. In 2011, he became Director of the Global Securities Services Division in London, to then take on, three years later, the responsibility of Deutsche Bank’s transactional bank in France. In July 2017, he became the CEO of Liquidshare.
About BNP Paribas
BNP Paribas is a leading bank in Europe with an international reach. It has a presence in 74 countries, with more than 192,000 employees, including more than 146,000 in Europe. The Group has key positions in its three main activities: Domestic Markets and International Financial Services (whose retail-banking networks and financial services are covered by Retail Banking & Services) and Corporate & Institutional Banking, which serves two client franchises: corporate clients and institutional investors. The Group helps all its clients (individuals, community associations, entrepreneurs, SMEs, corporates and institutional clients) to realise their projects through solutions spanning financing, investment, savings and protection insurance.
In Europe, the Group has four domestic markets (Belgium, France, Italy and Luxembourg) and BNP Paribas Personal Finance is the European leader in consumer lending.
. BNP Paribas is rolling out its integrated retail-banking model in Mediterranean countries, in Turkey, in Eastern Europe and a large network in the western part of the United States. In its Corporate & Institutional Banking and International Financial Services activities, BNP Paribas also enjoys top positions in Europe, a strong presence in the Americas as well as a solid and fast-growing business in Asia-Pacific.
About Groupe Caisse des Dépôts
Caisse des Dépôts and its subsidiaries together form a State-owned group that is a long-term investor serving France's public interest and local and regional economic development. This role was reaffirmed by the French Law on modernisation of the economy of 4 August 2008.
The Group has renowned expertise in managing public service mandates and it has earmarked four priority sectors for creating jobs and partnering industrial development and innovation: business development, the energy transition, housing, and infrastructure and mobility. www.caissedesdepots.fr
About CACEIS
CACEIS is the asset servicing banking group of Crédit Agricole dedicated to institutional and corporate clients. Through offices across Europe, North America and Asia, CACEIS offers a broad range of services covering execution, clearing, depositary and custody, fund administration, middle office outsourcing, forex, securities lending, fund distribution support and issuer services. With assets under custody of €2.5 trillion and assets under administration of €1.6 trillion, CACEIS is a European leader in asset servicing and one of the major players worldwide (figures as of 31 December 2016).
www.caceis.com
About d’Euroclear
Euroclear group is the financial industry’s trusted provider of post trade services. At the core, the group provides settlement, safe-keeping and servicing of domestic and cross-border securities for bonds, equities and derivatives to investment funds. Euroclear is a proven, resilient capital market infrastructure committed to delivering risk-mitigation, automation and efficiency at scale for its global client franchise.
The Euroclear group includes Euroclear Bank - which is rated AA+ by Fitch Ratings and AA by Standard & Poor’s - as well as Euroclear Belgium, Euroclear Finland, Euroclear France, Euroclear Nederland, Euroclear Sweden and Euroclear UK & Ireland. The Euroclear group settled the equivalent of EUR 655 trillion in securities transactions in 2016, representing 196 million domestic and cross-border transactions. In 2016, the group held EUR 27.7 trillion in assets for clients.
For more information about Euroclear, please visit www.euroclear.com.