Hashtacs aims to simplify processes in financial sevices sector with blockchain

SINGAPORE (July 19): Jay Ng had a near-death experience in the UK a couple of years ago, when London was experiencing a fintech boom.

While he was lying in a hospital bed, three things came to mind: health, relationships and social impact.

At his previous job at URA, Ng was already managing a portfolio with assets worth about $1 billion, but he did not think he was making a significant social impact.

Later, a chance meeting with an old classmate caused Ng to think of marrying his knowledge of asset and fund management with blockchain technology.

This subsequently led to the founding of Hashstacs, which provides blockchain technology under white-label arrangements to financial institutions.

In the six months that Hashstacs has been around, it has approached more than 100 financial institutions across Asia, Europe, the Caribbean and Africa to let them know what blockchain technology can offer.

By offering blockchain -- the double-entry bookkeeping system on its platform -- Hashtacs wants to allow the efficient consolidation of records and easier transactions by financial institutions seeking to transfer their records to blockchain. This also simplifies the execution of central depository clearing for companies.

In addition, the Hashtacs platform also allows bond issuers to do away with the manual process of selling bonds while bond traders can easily check their coupon rates and sell or redeem their bonds with just a click of the button.

Despite its recent entry into the market, Hashtacs now has established investors such as the Gibraltar Stock Exchange (GSX) and Hong Kong-listed Chong Sing Holdings FinTech Group, with the former also engaging Hashtacs’ services.

To find out more about Hashtacs and its growth plans, login to read Hashstacs aims to use blockchain to simplify processes in financial services sector in The Edge Singapore (Issue 891, week of July 22) which is on sale now.