Distributed Financial Market network to be launched

EPAM Systems, Inc. (NYSE: EPAM), a leading global provider of digital platform engineering and software development services, has partnered with Fnality International, a consortium of wholesale banks founded to create a network of distributed Financial Market Infrastructures (dFMIs), to deliver payment-on-chain to support tomorrow’s wholesale banking requirements. EPAM will provide Fnality with software development services to create a series of new national peer-to-peer Fnality Payment Systems (FnPS) as well as facilitate its integration and interoperability within blockchain networks or legacy systems.

Processing a trade transaction today involves multiple parties and locations, especially in cross-border commerce, leading to delayed or failed settlements and exposure to increased risk. With a blockchain payment system, all the contractual obligations are discharged Peer to Peer and are irrevocable and instantaneous. The Fnality Payments Systems will settle tokenized value transactions and reduce reliance on intraday unsecured credit transactions. Further, the distributed nature of FnPS will eliminate negative system impact from individual participants or nodes – resulting in faster settlements and reduced systemic, operational and credit risks.

“With more than 25 years of next-gen technology expertise honing collaborative, productive and secure remote working practices, EPAM is uniquely positioned to engineer and optimize Fnality’s innovative payment infrastructure in an agile and distributed working environment,” said Ben Brinkworth, Head of Financial Services in UK & Ireland, EPAM. “As banks look to reduce costs now more than ever, our partnership with Fnality will enable the wholesale banking sector to increase business agility, reduce systemic and credit risk and improve settlement efficiency through new Fnality Payment Systems.”

The financial services industry is undergoing a digital revolution and with growing interest in digital assets, the need for digital cash in the form of cash on ledger is increasing exponentially. EPAM and Fnality are creating a next generation payment system infrastructure that will be the catalyst to drive true peer-to-peer financial markets and is backed by a consortium of financial institutions, including some of the world’s most important banks. Due to the current environment with COVID-19, EPAM quickly shifted the project model to a distributed remote working environment by leveraging virtual workshops and agile methodologies. After demonstrating the successful operation of the first use case on the system, Fnality and EPAM will add more currencies, legal entities from shareholders, as well as additional participants and business applications in 2021.

“We're very pleased to have EPAM join with Fnality as strategic partners as we launch into the main technical delivery of the solution.” said Rhomaios Ram, CEO of Fnality International. “They are an organization with great experience in the financial sector and within blockchain projects. They will be integral in delivering the Fnality Payment System to enterprise grade.”