Takasbank ISMS

Takasbank, which is the Istanbul (Turkey) Clearing, Settlement and Custody Bank, has revealed plans to launch a blockchain-powered platform for trading physical gold. Established in 1988, Takasbank is the central clearing and settlement house in Turkey, which also offers central counterparty clearing services for particular BIST markets assigned by the Capital Markets Board of Turkey, which is the domestic financial regulatory authority and monitoring agency. Takasbank's project, codenamed BiGA, intends to facilitate people to move physical gold held at the Borsa Istanbul Stock Exchange (BIST), Turkey's exclusive organization for exchange, in the form of digitized gold units. The units, which perform the same function as stablecoins pegged to fiat currency, have their valued linked to the price of gold. A "BiGA" represents one gram of gold in Turkish, as per the official website of regarding the project. The venture, started last year, has completed trials with several domestic financial institutions and banks, including Turkey's second-biggest bank Ziraat Bankas, Albaraka Turk, VakfBank, Kuveyt Turk and Garanti BBVA. Takasbank stressed the safety and privacy of transactions on the BiGA platform, while revealing that the transfer process is monitored by authorities. The bank will offer a wallet for customers to store the token and BiGA will ultimately be used as a method of payment in online purchases.