Key takeaways

• Last month, FINRA issued a report on the adoption of distributed ledger (“Blockchain”) technology by the securities industry and is seeking comments from interested parties.
• In its report, FINRA indicated that Blockchain has the potential to improve the transparency and efficiency of certain securities transactions, including expediting clearing and settlement times, issuing and trading shares, as well as engaging in repetitive data management functions.
• Nevertheless, FINRA cautions that firms must be prepared to appropriately govern and implement Blockchain as part of their systems and should work with FINRA to adapt the current regulatory framework to this new technology.