SBI Ripple Asia is forming a consortium that will research the use of distributed ledger technology in securities products.

According to an announcement, the company – a joint venture between Japanese investment firm SBI and San Fransisco-based DLT payment startup Ripple – said the new consortium will see joint efforts from 18 securities firms to research and commercialize applications of emerging technologies, particularly DLT, to improve efficiency for customers, while reducing operational cost.

Notable firms that will be part of the initiative include SBI Securities, Daiwa Securities and Nomura Securities. In addition, SBI Ripple Asia said that the consortium will form a DLT Advanced Experiment Working Group to further its study on blockchain.

The move comes as the latest initiative by SBI Ripple Asia to push the use of blockchain applications within more financial services.

As previously reported by CoinDesk, SBI Ripple Asia announced a successful pilot last March with 47 banks that used Ripple's technology for interbank transactions.

Disclosure: CoinDesk is a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which has an ownership stake in Ripple.

Japanese yen image via Shutterstock