Former executive director of the Bank of England Sir David Walker has joined blockchain company Setl as chairman.
Walker, who previously served as the chairman of Barclays, Morgan Stanley International, the Securities and Investment Board and as deputy chairman of Lloyds TSB, also used to work as an assistant secretary to the Treasury, for the UK Government.
Setl, which is based in London, operates a payment and settlement infrastructure based on blockchain technology. It uses a public ledger and public/private key technology to facilitate settlement between two parties.
Important advance
Walker said he was “very pleased” to accept his position with Setl and labelled blockchain an “important advance in settlement technology”.
“By simplifying the process of payments and settlement SETL should be able to deliver significant operational efficiencies which will benefit all market participants and, most importantly, reduce costs borne by savers and investors,” he added.
Setl has also appointed Professor Philip Bond, visiting professor in the departments of engineering mathematics and computer science at Bristol University, as head of its Cryptography and Cyber Security Committee.
Transaction scale
Earlier this year, Setl claimed it was capable of processing 1bn transactions per day. According to the Capgemini/RBS World Payments Report 2015, total non-cash payments globally amount to 1.06bn movements per day.
“We are very excited to break through the 1bn transactions per day barrier and to be the first to demonstrate that the Setl blockchain can handle the volumes required by the financial services industry, where speed, capacity and reliability are crucial,” Peter Randall, COO of Setl, said at the time.