Fintech company Icon Solutions unveiled a demo of the IPF digital assets reference implementation helping banks to assess how they can use this payments infrastructure development framework for DLT-based digital assets support.
UK-based fintech has presented a reference implementation of its IPF flagship system for interoperability with DLT networks in response to the growing industry demand for both blockchain-native digital assets and tokenised deposits and real-world-assets (tokenised RWAs).
The latter maintain stable growth even at times when the general crypto market experiences downturn. Tokenised deposits, government bonds, private credit, and other real-world financial instruments have long been sought after by financial institutions. Now, with the FCA and Bank of England encouraging the use of DLT in UK wholesale markets, banks can proceed to the practical implementation of tokenisation technology.
At the same time, it is important that DLT-supported assets do not hinder existing payment infrastructure banks already rely on. IPF’s design is supposed to assist such entities in integration of any digital asset type (e.g. stablecoins, tokenised deposits, CBDCs) and DLT network with existing core banking systems and payments infrastructure. As the connectivity is not affected, it should significantly reduce complexity, cost and time to market.
The Icon Payments Framework (IPF) from Icon Solutions is a payments infrastructure development framework for banks that includes payment orchestration capabilities as one part of the system, and also SDK, workflow tools, integrations, testing tools, cloud-native microservices architecture, and more for banking systems developers to build or modernize their payment rails.
The main benefits of applying this exact framework to banks’ transition to digital asset support are high interconnectivity, reduced implementation time (up to 4x faster), and savings on ownership cost, which the company itself estimates at 50%.
“The move from digital asset experimentation to implementation is a clear market signal that all banks must focus on moving towards a consolidated payments infrastructure that can support any type of payment, anytime, anywhere,” comments Arjeh van Oijen, Head of Product Management at Icon. “As banks start to harness the potential of digital money, IPF is the only solution with the flexibility to bring new services to market quickly, safely and cost-effectively – without relying on external vendors.”
Digital money are currently moving to the institutional level. Both evolving regulations and improved collaboration between blockchain industry players and TradFi trusted institutions are contributing to this shift. At the same time, a recent study of the UK’s Investment Association (IA) and Singapore’s Investment Management Association of Singapore (IMAS) showed that many institutional investors still wait for the fragmentation of custody providers to diminish, and processes for corporate actions, redemptions, transfers, and voting to get legally clearer before they engage with digital assets at scale.
