Partners Group has ramped up its administrative security with the development of a proprietary blockchain tool that authenticates documents exchanged between the firm and its service providers.
The Swiss-based private markets investment manager said the product allows for documents to be verified independently by both parties, a security measure that was not on offer from its service providers.
“The big advantage of our blockchain-based protocol is that the document doesn’t need to be manipulated to transfer it, you don’t have to rely on another party to verify the documents, making it independent. It provides 100 percent certainty of verification,” said Andreas Knecht, chief operating officer at Partners Group.
The in-house tool works by producing an “identity” for a document that can be authenticated by all parties.
“We validate the authenticity of documents sent on the blockchain by running a hash algorithm over the document, which produces a unique number for the document and stores it on the blockchain. The other side can then verify if the document is authentic. They do that by running the algorithm again on Partners’ Group verification system, and is validated against the unique information stored in the blockchain,” said Raymond Schnidrig, chief technology officer at the firm.
The firm would not disclose plans to expand its use to other areas of its business, but said there was potential to roll it out to clients.
“We have over 900 institutional investor clients worldwide, so when we make capital calls, and when we invest the money, there is potential for blockchain to be very useful in the future. Also in reporting information to clients, there is big potential for this technology to be leveraged,” said Knecht.
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