Blockchain and fintech start-up AiX today announced that the highly-regarded global markets and derivatives specialist Steve Compton has joined the company as an advisor. Prior to bringing his 26 years of experience to AiX, Compton worked as a managing director in the Global Markets Division at Citigroup. Most recently at Citi, Steve had global responsibility for G10 Markets Treasury, the Fixed Income Finance business and Collateral Optimisation.

AiX is the world’s first AI broker that will disrupt the traditional voice-brokerage model by using a conversational interface to execute trades on behalf of traders and reduces commissions by up to 95%. It will eliminate the requirement for interdealer brokers for price discovery, using machine learning technology to automatically discover the best deals for traders as well as adding a layer of transparency, secured by blockchain technology.

Compton said: “The investment bank trading floor has changed immeasurably over my 26 years in banking. The transition from voice to electronic trading has been fully realised in some markets, but the historical model of interdealer brokerage remains widely prevalent. It’s time to transform that model with AI, and AiX is bringing the technology to do just that. Implementing a platform founded on blockchain will bring full transparency to the trade negotiation process through the use of a ledger, whilst substantially reducing costs for all market participants.”

Trading eligibility in the form of KYC and AML information will also be recorded on the blockchain, ensuring regulatory requirements are met. Every trade will write an Evidence Tree to the blockchain, which provides a complete, auditable record of the data and decisions used to make the trade.

In addition to negotiating and executing trades in traditional financial markets, AiX will also broker cryptocurrencies. Jos Evans, a former broker, and founder and CEO of AiX, said: “Cryptocurrencies recently roared past $300 billion in market capitalisation. While that amount still only equates to a rounding error in global financial markets, investors and traders are starting to take notice. With the support and guidance of experienced, innovation-minded advisors such as Steve, AiX will be enabling best execution in cryptocurrencies and traditional financial markets. Doing so will allow cross-market trades using the simplest of interfaces, a chatbot. Most importantly, we will use AI to optimise every trade.”