American software corporation Microsoft announced on October 30 that it will integrate its Azure Blockchain technology into stock exchange Nasdaq Inc.’s Financial Framework. NFF provides software for trading infrastructure and operations outsourcing, which also fulfills Nasdaq’s risk and surveillance technology offering.

The parties within the collaboration will develop a “ledger agnostic blockchain capability” that will enable operability across multiple ledgers. The new product will reportedly make it more simple for buyer and seller matching, management of delivery, and payment and settlement of transactions. Integrating Azure Blockchain will also allow NFF customers to deploy various blockchains through one common interface.

Tom Fay, Senior Vice President of Enterprise Architecture at Nasdaq, said that the partnership with Microsoft removes some of the complexities of integrating blockchain technology into existing infrastructures. He added:“Our NFF integration with their blockchain services provides a layer of abstraction, making our offering ledger-agnostic, secure, highly scalable, and ultimately helps us continue to explore a much broader range of customer use cases for blockchain.”

Cointelegraph reports that Nasdaq recently announced a new blockchain patent, which makes reference to “an information computer system […] provided for securely releasing time-sensitive information to recipients via a blockchain.” The company plans to calm the release of timely information to the media, while also keeping it secure from a legal standpoint.