Seychelles FSA gives approval for a unique regulated market infrastructure ecosystem for digital and traditional assets with licenses for Exchange, CCP Clearing House and Central Securities Depository
London, Seychelles 5thFebruary 2020. GMEX Group (GMEX), a leader in digital business and technology solutions for exchange and post-trade operators, and Digital Partners Network (DPN), a group of professional services firms meeting the demands for digital business enablement, are pleased to announce the launch of the Seychelles-based Securities, Commodities and Derivatives Exchange (SECDEX).
SECDEX is unique, as it is fully regulated, multi-asset, hybrid (both traditional and digital), delivers seamless trading, clearing and settlement and combines the market infrastructure strengths of GMEX, as a founding shareholder, with the professional services of DPN, as a co-founding shareholder. These include specialist legal, finance, compliance, corporate structuring services and investment opportunities through a tokenised digital fund. This means, that in addition to the listing of traditional securities and derivatives, Security Token Offerings (STOs) can now be undertaken in a regulated and trusted environment, cost effectively. The complete solution offers issuance, capital raising and full professional services support for the tokenisation process, including legal and valuations plus listing and secondary trading on SECDEX Exchange with associated post trade settlement.
The SECDEX Group consists of the Exchange, Central Counterparty (CCP) Clearing House and Central Securities Depository that have all received full regulatory licences from the Seychelles Financial Services Authority (FSA). In addition, the SECDEX Digital Custodian is the first application to be formally lodged under the Seychelles FSA new Sandbox regime. This not only offers secure custody for digital assets, but also has a borrowing and lending platform (Linct) for such assets. The investment platform also offers the ability for pan-African Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) to raise capital through project funding and invoice factoring, plugging the SME financing gap across Sub-Saharan Africa. SMEs are able to raise equity or debt through tokenisation or traditional listing on the SECDEX Exchange.
Following the granting of the licenses, the SECDEX management team are working on the first phase of the implementation project, which will be the Exchange launch; focusing on securities, debt, spot commodities, cryptocurrencies and derivatives contracts in both traditional and digital tokenised form. The plan includes initial STOs to be primary listed by the end of Q1 and initial secondary trades to be executed by the end of Q2.
Dr Steve Fanny, CEO of the Seychelles Financial Services Authority, commented “The Financial Services Authority is pleased that SECDEX has chosen to establish itself in the Seychelles, whilst subjecting itself to the regulatory and supervision of the Financial Services Authority.” He added, “We expect to maintain a continuous and ever developing relationship, beneficial to the industry and the Seychelles as a whole, whilst ensuring the integrity and highest standard we have come to expect from SECDEX.”
Jessica T. Naga, Partner of Digital Partners Network and Director responsible for Legal and Compliance at SECDEX said “Receiving regulatory approval from the Financial Services Regulatory Authority of the Seychelles is important as SECDEX will be able to demonstrate a robust and trusted exchange and post trade eco-system.” She added, “This is aligned with key initiatives being undertaken by the G20 and other international organisations which are working to support digital asset activities to address market integrity, investor protection, anti-money laundering, counterparty risk and financial stability monitoring.”
Hirander Misra, Chairman of GMEX Group and SECDEX Group Chairman commented, “SECDEX is the first regulated market infrastructure in the world, which can exchange-list both traditional and digital asset classes including securities, security tokens, cryptocurrencies, derivatives and commodities on a single platform, with full professional services support, combined with seamless trading, clearing and settlement of these individual asset classes and swaps between them.” He added, “The SECDEX ecosystem can uniquely facilitate the global interchange of traditional and digital asset classes in line with how markets need to evolve, as well as enable the provision of SME finance across Africa.”
SECDEX utilises the proven GMEX Fusion hybrid centralised & blockchain distributed ledger technology suite, which is deployed and trusted by multiple international regulated financial institutions around the globe. SECDEX has also received strong investment interest and is in the process of actively growing ownership by syndicating equity to strategic investors, in addition to expanding the management team.
Originally published on the GMEX website.