In 2017, the spread of two pieces of malicious software called WannaCry and NotPetya led to losses in the hundreds of millions of dollars for their high-profile victims, which include the British National Health Service and shipping giant Moller-Maersk of Denmark. Attacks through the interbank messaging service SWIFT resulted in large-scale theft from customers, including central banks, between 2016 and 2017.
The project was launched in January 2021 as an initiative under the Innovation Accelerator of the Intergovernmental Fintech Working Group (IFWG) led by the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) through its Fintech Unit. PK2 explored the implications of tokenisation in financial markets through a proof-ofconcept (PoC) that issued, cleared and settled SARB debentures using distributed ledger technology (DLT).