Zurich, 17 September 2020 – Sygnum Bank and FQX, a Swiss Fintech, announce the settlement of an eNoteTM, or electronic promissory note, leveraging Sygnum Bank's Digital CHF (DCHF) stablecoin. Instant settlement in these transactions enables the direct flow of liquidity from investors to businesses, reducing counterparty and fraud risk and lowering costs.
Businesses looking to grow often need more time to obtain funding due to complex and paper-intensive processes that contribute to a growing USD 1.5 trillion global trade finance gap. Promissory notes are a widely-used traditional legal instrument enabling companies and individuals to obtain finance based on an unconditional promise to pay, providing much-needed flexibility and resilience in areas like trade and corporate finance. By moving these time-consuming and multi-party processes onto the blockchain as an eNote, transactions can be settled instantly, with the liquidity flowing directly to the businesses seeking finance.
"Transferable electronic promissory notes make liquidity available where it is needed for businesses while also offering attractive investment opportunities for financial institutions," says FQX Chief Executive Officer Frank Wendt. "Each eNote issued via FQX is assigned an ISIN number, making it easily transferable to other investors," he added.
Due to Distributed Ledger Technology's (DLT) smart contract capabilities and fast development times, innovative financial instruments are rapidly emerging in the marketplace. However, a digital, smart form of money that enables instant settlements is needed for these instruments to maximize their efficiency and scalability. We believe Sygnum's DCHF – a programmable, bank-issued stablecoin - is the ideal medium to deliver these benefits.
"With this eNote, Sygnum's DCHF demonstrates the potential of smart digital assets to transfer value instantly and directly between two parties and provide faster liquidity," says Martin Burgherr, Sygnum's Chief Client Officer. "As we move towards an agile and more digital economy, this capability will accelerate the development of more performance-based financial products underpinned by institutional-grade trust," he added.
Each eNote is recorded and stored on the Swiss Trust Chain, a banking-grade DLT system maintained by Swisscom and the Swiss Post. The electronic signatures used to issue and transfer the eNotes on the FQX platform securely are provided by Swisscom Trust Services.
"Innovation and trust are at the heart of Swisscom. We proudly support FQX and Sygnum with our leading electronic signature and blockchain technology to launch eNote. This successful first transaction marks yet another step towards a fully digital economy," says Benoit Strölin, Head of Swisscom Trust Services. "eNote proves why DLT will play a key role in enterprise use cases, "adds Roland Cortivo, Swisscom Head of Swiss Trust Chain.