Do not invest more money than you can afford to lose.
R3, a consortium of more than 70 global financial institutions, said on Tuesday it will expand with its first dedicated distributed ledger technology (DLT) centre of excellence in Asia. The R3 Asia Lab will be located in the central business district of Singapore and will be supported by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).
The lab will host a Blockchain centre as well as a physical center of excellence to accommodate visiting specialist DLT technologists and innovators.
The Asian lab will complement the work being undertaken in the R3 Global Lab and Research Center (LRC). The Singapore lab staff will be supported by a team of business and technology experts.
“As one of the world’s leading fintech hubs and a key global financial centre, Singapore is the ideal location for our Asia lab,” David Rutter, Group CEO of R3, said. “We are honored to have the support from the MAS and we look forward to working closely with them as we continue to research and develop applications that can help regulators and financial institutions improve efficiency, transparency and reduce costs,” ha added.
The establishment of the R3 Asia Lab will also receive full support from the MAS. The regulator will help foster collaboration across local institutions (that otherwise compete) in an attempt to innovate and further the advancement of Blockchain technology. These solutions aim to radically improve efficiency, transparency, and reduce costs for financial institutions and ultimately be commercialized across global capital markets.
“The practical spin-offs from fundamental research in distributed ledgers and blockchains are beginning to be realized,” said MAS CFO Sopnendu Mohanty. “MAS is pleased to collaborate with the financial industry through broad, international, consortia such as R3 to create and conduct rigorous experiments that will inform and encourage adoption of these advances,” he said.
R3 is a consortium with over 70 of the world’s largest financial institutions that brings together industry veterans and new tech entrepreneurs. It operates out of New York, London and San Francisco.
Singapore is among the world’s leading financial hubs. The MAS is its central banks and financial authority body. It recently over took the regulation of cryptocurrency exchanges and the over-the-counter (OTC) derivatives market in Singapore. The regulator partnered earlier in 2016 with technology giant IBM to set up a center in Singapore that cooperates with government, industries and academia for the development of applications and solutions based on blockchain technology.