Swedish financial group Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB (STO:SEB-A) and Nasdaq, Inc. (Nasdaq:NDAQ) have announced a joint project to test a mutual fund trading platform based on blockchain technology.

Learn how to buy Bitcoin and Ethereum safely with our simple guide!

Join the iFX EXPO Asia and discover your gateway to the Asian Markets

“With the help of a blockchain we can create a faster, simpler, more effective and reliable fund market,” said Göran Fors, acting head of Investor Services at SEB. “Funds are increasingly important for our clients and it is with great pleasure that we can announce this important project together with Nasdaq.”

“By leveraging blockchain technology there is strong potential for improvement via digitalization that can reduce manual work, create a faster process and reduce the risk for errors,” said Magnus Haglind, SVP & Head of Product Management, Market Technology, Nasdaq. “This development will look to benefit the fund market and, in the end, also the individual investors through faster response from purchases and sales.”

Follow the Finance Magnates Blockchain Podcast:

The developers of the project explain that, by subscribing to a private blockchain, the various market participants—fund companies, distributors and others—will be able to share a distributed database in which all transactions and changes are registered among all participants in real-time. The cooperation agreement entails SEB and Nasdaq continuing to develop the technology with the end goal of creating a working prototype, which will be based on Chain’s blockchain infrastructure platform.

In addition, they have opened a channel for collaboration with additional interested parties on building a uniformed market infrastructure for Sweden’s fund market.