Private Equity Moris Beracha Wuani

By Thomas Simms JPMorgan Chase (JPM) is expanding the use of its blockchain technology to help reduce the number of global payments rejected by errors, the Financial Times reported on April 21. The United States financial giant is adding new features to its Interbank Information Network (IIN,) which is now used by more than 220 banks around the world. The technology was initially designed to help institutions share payments data in real time — cutting delays in processing times. John Hunter, JPM’s head of global clearing, said it has built a new feature that can instantly verify whether a payment is heading to a valid bank account. At present, transactions can be rejected days after they were sent because of typos in sort codes, account numbers and addresses. He told the FT: “Banks straight through processing rates are in the mid-80s to mid-90s. It’s that gap — the 5 to 20 percent of payments — that have to be assessed by operations where we’...

By Daniel Palmer A Brazilian investment bank is planning to raise millions of dollars through the offering of a security token. In an announcement Thursday, Banco BTG Pactual said it will back its blockchain-based token with distressed Brazilian real estate assets, with the expectation of raising up to $15 million. It will also establish a secondary market following the sale in order to provide liquidity to the tokens. The offering will allow investors to invest in the Brazilian real estate market and, based on the performance of the tied assets, receive periodic profits. International investors will be able to purchase the token, called ReitBZ (RBZ), through a “low-cost, tax-efficient structure,” said the bank. BTG Pactual CEO, Roberto Sallouti, said: “The technology associated with this offering allows us to be a pioneer in providing access to asset classes that have historically been difficult for global retail...