On Thursday, the London Stock Exchange Group revealed that it is launching a blockchain-based platform to settle commercial bank money, nonstop, across different currencies and networks.
They’re calling it Digital Settlement House, or DiSH for short. The idea is to bring settlement of cash, digital assets, and securities into the modern era by using distributed ledger technology so everything can settle instantly, 24/7, between all kinds of payment systems.
Honestly, this is a leap forward for post-trade infrastructure. Up until now, settlement systems, especially for cash and securities, have been stuck with limited hours, tricky reconciliations, and slow access to funds.
All that mess ties up liquidity, increases risk, and drags out the final exchange of value after a trade.
LSEG is betting that with DiSH, a blockchain-driven system can actually fix these problems by letting settlement happen in real time, all the time.
The core of this new setup is DiSH Cash. It’s a digital version of commercial bank deposits, recorded on a ledger at participating banks.
Here’s what sets it apart. Instead of relying on stablecoins or some made-up tokens, DiSH Cash is backed by actual bank deposits.
So, it’s basically “real cash” on a distributed ledger, still tied into the regular banking world. This means people can move and own cash instantly on the platform, using actual money, not some stand-in or complicated derivative.
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How DiSH Works
DiSH’s setup backs both payment-versus-payment (PvP) and delivery-versus-payment (DvP) settlement models.
These are essential for cutting down settlement risk. With PvP, two currencies swap hands at the same moment, so no one ends up paying without getting something back.
DvP takes this idea to securities, making sure that assets only change hands when the money does too.
Because DiSH runs these models in real time, it wipes out payment lag, which is a big reason counterparty risk sticks around in traditional finance.
DiSH sits inside LSEG’s Post Trade Solutions business, and it lets people work across both blockchain and traditional systems. So, whether you’re a bank, a clearing house, or a payment platform, you can use DiSH—on-chain, off-chain, or hopping between the two.
The platform can settle deals on its own ledger or just act as a notary to verify settlements happening elsewhere. That flexibility means easier connections and a better shot at wider use.
One of the standout features here is how DiSH handles liquidity. Normally, old-school settlement ties up cash and collateral for hours or even days until everything’s final.
DiSH frees up those assets, so institutions can move money and collateral instantly and keep less cash locked away.
There’s also access to intraday borrowing and lending, so users can juggle funding and obligations on the fly, right as trades happen.
Proof of Concept and Partnerships
Right before launching, LSEG ran a proof of concept with Digital Asset and a group of big financial players using the Canton Network, a blockchain setup designed for institutional markets.
In that pilot, they took commercial bank deposits, turned them into tokens, and used those tokens to settle trades across different assets and currencies.
Everything got logged on DiSH’s ledger, so ownership was always clear. The results? The pilot worked and set the stage for taking the platform live, showing just how fast settlement could get and how much it could boost liquidity.
This move fits right in with what’s happening across the industry. Everyone’s talking about tokenisation and settling trades on-chain these days.
Banks and infrastructure providers around the world keep experimenting with distributed ledger technology, all hoping to make things faster, more transparent, and a lot less risky operationally.
By rolling out 24/7 settlement, LSEG is trying to move past the old limitations of post-trade systems, which still stick to business hours and depend on outdated ways of clearing and messaging.
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