Yesterday, WSFS Institutional Services, a unit of U.S.-based WSFS Bank, announced a collaboration with blockchain firm Intain for automating capital market transactions. The deal is to create a tool for trustee reporting of asset-backed security transactions on a distributed ledger technology (DLT) platform.
Among the many services it offers, WSFS Institutional Services provides owner and indenture trustee services for asset-backed securities (ABS). WSFS and Intain aim to automate part of this service using blockchain to reduce reconciliation.
“Most technological innovation in the industry to-date has been focused on front-end loan originations. Our work with Intain will allow us to produce trustee reports faster, with more accuracy and access to loan level detail to investors,” said Kristin Moore, Senior Vice President, Director, Corporate Trust, WSFS Institutional Services.
As an example of the automation, smart contracts will be used to calculate payments. The platform will connect to issuer and servicer systems to receive loan data and ongoing servicing information.
Delaware based WSFS Bank is one of the oldest locally managed banks in the United States. The parent company, WSFS Financial Corporation, offers a range of financial services and had $20.7 billion in assets under management and administration at the end of 2019.
India-based Intain combines AI and blockchain to offer services such as asset securitization, warehousing, REITs, and bond issuance. The company is a member of Hyperledger.
“When parties work off the same source data, you can then have true automation, and distributed ledger provides an excellent means of achieving that,” said Siddhartha, Founder and CEO of Intain.
Meanwhile, this is not the first time WSFS has forayed into blockchain. It is acting as a trustee in a $1billion asset-based financing facility to Figure Technologies, the blockchain fintech offering a home equity, mortgage, and student loan refinancing solution. Jefferies is providing the funding.
In Italy, Centrotrena Servicing, which manages asset-backed securities, is building a credit securitization management platform. It securitizes non-performing loan portfolios, amongst others.
Both Fitch and Moody’s have explored the potential of blockchain in the asset-backed security sector.
