Unicorn in the making, page-92

They have a system, based on blockchain technology underneath, that enables extra information to be associated with inter-bank payments (including international transfers) over SWIFT or other systems, in a globally distributed / accessible, but most importantly, totally secure manner. Security is cryptographically "baked in" through the blockchain tech.

This is meant to help banks track payment flows through the international financial system and thus make compliance with anti-money laundering, anti-terrorism financing regulations faster, easier, and better than current payment systems allows (due to inherent limitations in the underlying design of such systems).

The idea is they clip the ticket every time a payment has this information added / associated to it. If it becomes widely used they win big.

However, the system has not ever really been used yet as fully intended - the HSBC implementations are more of an internal documentation management system as I understand it. And the system certainly has not been proven to be able to operate at global scale and with expected reliability / availability / resilience etc etc - there are real risks here - especially re the use of blockchain technology.

I also understand the company has had a LOT of churn of its staff. I also see this as a key risk.