UK-based fintech firm Tokenovate has launched the Novat, a programmable, settlement protocol for tokenised assets.
The Novat is designed to unlock liquidity, reduce systemic risk, and streamline post-trade operations across global capital markets.
According to Tokenovate, today’s capital markets are “fragmented and slow”, with liquidity trapped within complex custodial chains and reconciliation delays.
The Novat Protocol aims to eliminate this long-standing weakness in capital market settlement by combining programmability with standardisation, “marking a structural shift in how capital markets operate.
By aligning data, logic, and legal record within one programmable layer, the firm says the Novat lays the foundation for real-time liquidity, reduced systemic risk, and the next phase of market modernisation.
Unlike other initiatives, the Novat Protocol tokenises the act of settlement itself, synchronising asset and cash movements while introducing automation and legal finality.
The Novat Protocol is powered by the FINOS Common Domain Model (CDM), the industry’s shared data standard for representing financial products and events.
By aligning legal contracts, trade data, and settlement workflows, the Novat ensures that every on-chain action reflects a clearly defined contractual obligation.
Supported by Tokenovate’s work with the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) and FINOS, the CDM-based automation engine transforms market standards into executable logic — enabling settlement to occur deterministically and transparently.
Discussing the protocol, Richard Baker, CEO of Tokenovate, comments: “Markets can’t afford to wait two years, or two days, for liquidity to move.
“The Novat delivers what comes next: instant, atomic, and legally final settlement that releases liquidity the moment a trade completes and slashes operational risk.
“As markets get even faster, only solutions that combine legal certainty, settlement finality, and liquidity optimisation will define the next era of efficiency and trust in global finance.”
Ciarán McGonagle, chief legal and product officer at Tokenovate, adds: “It acts not as a parallel infrastructure but as a synchronisation layer, bridging legal, operational, and technical domains so that settlement can occur deterministically, with the same certainty in law as in code.”
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