Cross-border payments network Earthport is betting on a market upturn driven by distributed ledger technology after reporting a doubling of losses for the six month period ended 31 December 2017.
The company, which is currently seeking a new CEO and CFO, is reporting a nine percent decline in gross margins over the first six months as expenses grew and losses rose to £3.2 million, £1.7 million up on the equivalent period the year before. T
The unaudited trading update follows revised guidance issued by the Earthport in December that warned of a 10-15% drop in anticipated revenue for the financial year ending 30 June 2018. A stalling in contract negotiations and implementations and a five percent hit from the loss of an unidentified client were blamed for the roadbump.
Earthport is reporting a strong pipeline but is operating in a market undergoing significant transformation as advances in real-time payments and emerging technologies shake up the sector.
Anticipating the coming upheavals, the company in 2016 introduced a 'Distributed Ledger Hub' offering a single API to connect banks to Ripple's financial network when processing cross-border payments.
In today's update, Earthport says further announcements in the blockchain space are imminent.
"The emerging focus on new technologies such as distributed ledger highlights the strategic nature of Earthport’s assets, which will be key to the ability of these technologies to provide delivery of cross-border payments," says the firm. "The first of our initiatives in distributed ledger is expected to go live with a global bank in this half."