Former JPMorgan Exec Becomes New CEO of Blockchain-Based Trading Platform Vakt

According to Financial Times, former JPMorgan Chase executive Etienne Amic has been appointed as the new CEO of Vakt, a blockchain-based commodity  post-trade platform.

Amic served as a managing director at both JP Morgan and Mercuria Energy Trading SA. This time, he is expected to bring direct experience in commodities trading to the Vakt platform, which aims to digitize commodities trading process by reducing intermediate paperwork.

In November 2018, Vakt cooperated with major oil companies BP, Shell and Equinor launch this platform, it is also the company’s first blockchain-based processing tools, which is designed to provide any kind of tradable commodity, including energy.

In a press release, Amic said he believes that technology would fundamentally alter the physical commodity market.

Amic said Vakt aims to gather all participants, such as operators, physical clearinghouses, service providers and inspection companies, together onto one platform.

Vakt’s initial investors and first users of the platform include the energy giant BP, Equinor and Shell; independent traders Gunvor, Koch Supply & Trading and Mercuria; and banks ABN Amro, ING and Société Générale. In January, Chevron, Total and Reliance Industries also joined the alliance.

Amic said that the leading oil companies and banks pulling in the same direction demonstrated that Vakt was “something very powerful that the industry really needs”.

Image: pexels.com

Author: Max Li

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