USC Project to use utility coin to settle cross border trades

In the past two years UBS group and other major banks across three continents have been working on the USC (utility settlement Coin) project that would facilitate the issuance by central banks for currencies using blockchain. It would also make it easier for international banks to settle various transactions.

Banks such as Barclays, Credit Suisse, HSBC, State Street, MUFG, and CIBC were among the first to join. UBS, BNY Mellon, NEX, Santander, and Deutsche Bank, along with Blockchain startup Clearmatics started the project in 2015.

According to project co-founder and UBS Head of Strategic Investment and Fintech, Hyder Jaffrey, the project will serve as a stepping stone to a future in which central banks around the world are already utilizing their own virtual currencies.

Today UBS Group AG and 14 other banks will start to use a Bitcoin like token to settle cross border trads. The group has created a new company, Fnality International, to control the development of the token. The Group has put collectively $63.2 billion according to a recent article in Wall Street Journal.   The settlement coin will be a collateralized digital currency, backed by cash assets at a central bank, which allows them to transfer ownership easily through the exchange of USCs, thus reducing process complexity and the time taken for settlement.