Iress acquires blockchain platform

International technology company Iress has announced its acquisition of BC Gateways, a blockchain platform that allows participating financial service providers to securely exchange data and documents.

The transaction was executed through simultaneous signing and completion, effective as of 7 January. The sum of the transaction has not been disclosed, but Iress has said it is “not market-sensitive”.

According to Iress, BC Gateways currently has a focus on facilitating Australian financial institutions share large volumes of pricing, tax and regulatory data across the investment management value chain, and the application of this blockchain is not limited to Australia.

Iress chief executive Andrew Walsh said there is demand from financial institutions for cost-effective, automated and compliant technologies, which he said BC Gateways can meet.

“Financial institutions have no shortage of data – but without the right systems and levels of automation, data risks being inaccurate or difficult or expensive to manage,” Mr Walsh said.

“In today’s environment, neither outcome is workable for financial institutions. 

“BC Gateways has laid a strong foundation with its platform and its blockchain use-case, and we are looking forward to accelerating the solution in this segment.”

BC Gateways founder Andy Hutchings Broso added: “Our blockchain-enabled platform was launched with the support of forward-thinking institutions to drive greater efficiency and accountability in data flows across financial services globally.

“We are now pleased to be joining Iress, which shares our vision and has the experience, resources and reach to support us in bringing this much-needed step change to the industry.

“It means essential pricing, administrative, regulatory and tax data will not only be more efficiently distributed but also integrated into end-user processes, in turn bringing about better industry and investor outcomes.”

The news comes as Iress continues to expand its presence in Australia, following the appointment of its first business development manager for its mortgage software business in Australia in September 2019.

According to Iress, the role was created after seeing momentum in the growth of its mortgage sales and origination software MSO.

The MSO software is currently used to write one in four mortgages in the UK and was launched in Australia last year to help automate and simplify the mortgage sales and origination process.

Since then, it has been selected by neobanks Xinja and Volt to support the delivery of their upcoming mortgage offerings.

[Related: Iress appoints first BDM in Australia]