New York Community Bank, one of the leading US banks for multi-family loans and rent-regulated apartment buildings in New York City, announced the creation of a blockchain-based digital marker which will allow real-time secondary trading of its stocks, according to a press release.
The new digital marker, named USDForward (“USDF”), will allow Figure Technologies, Inc. (FTI) to conduct real-time secondary trading of New York Community Bank shares utilizing alternative trading system Figure ATS, which operates on the Provenance Blockchain.
USDForward is the first digital marker on the Provenance Blockchain and will enable New York Community Bank to act as the financial intermediary between buyers and sellers of FTI digital shares.
The FTI secondary trades using the new digital markers were the first transactions on the Figure ATS platform, which allows trading without traditional intermediaries and occurs in real-time. The secondary trading system incorporates New York Community Bank’s Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know-Your-Customer (KYC) compliance process, and involves automatic creation of USDF digital markers for customers.
New York Community Bancorp, Inc., listed on the New York Stock Exchange under ticker NYCB, says that their initial set of transactions on the blockchain validates the functionality of their digital market payment platform, and supports the bank’s plans to move forward with plans to expand the Decentralized Finance (DeFi) ecosystem.
“I am extremely pleased with our inaugural transaction with Figure Technologies. The Bank’s digital marker program, coupled with Figure’s secondary trading platform, is a giant step forward in our recently announced partnership and a very positive beginning for what we expect our collaboration with Figure will produce in the future,” New York Community Bank Chairman, President and CEO Thomas R. Cangemi stated in the release.
“The successful completion of our initial use case transactions represents an important milestone for NYCB as we implement our digital strategy,” he said.
New York Community Bank also plans to participate in the development of a USDF Consortium in the future, which would connect a syndicate of banks and financial institutions under a common set of compliance standards for minting USDF digital markers for use in DeFi transactions, according to the release.
The large New York-based bank’s parent New York Community Bancorp Inc. is a leading multi-family lender for non-luxury, rent-regulated apartment buildings in New York City, with over 236 branches in New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Florida and Arizona.
The company recently announced plans to acquire Flagstar Bancorp Inc. in an all-stock strategic merger which will bring the company’s to over $85 billion in total assets.
In other recent fintech news, headless e-commerce provider commercetools raised a $140 million Series C, with a $1.9 billion valuation. Insurtech Vouch also raised $90 million across two funding rounds to further its mission of offering all-digital B2B insurance services for startups.