Midnight’s Fahmi Syed Talk About Banking Privacy and Public Blockchain Infrastructure for SALT London

Fahmi Syed, wey be president of the Midnight Foundation, talk about the role wey programmable privacy dey play for modern banking during SALT London 2026, where financial institutions and blockchain leaders gather to discuss the infrastructure wey dey support digital financial markets.

Syed appear together with Monument Bank founder Mintoo Bhandari on November 4 for one panel wey dem title Building the New Banking Rails: Improving Capital Efficiency With FinTech. The discussion bring people from banking, blockchain infrastructure, and investment firms together to check how new financial technology fit improve capital efficiency while e still meet institutional requirements.

Why Public Blockchain Transparency Fit Bring Wahala for Banks

Public blockchain networks like Ethereum and Solana allow participants to verify transactions through shared infrastructure. But the transparent transaction records fit expose financial relationships, transaction amounts, and activity patterns wey regulated institutions suppose protect.

For one short video excerpt wey Midnight share, Syed raise the question of how to keep information confidential on public blockchain networks. E connect privacy with businesses ability to protect commercially sensitive information while dem still maintain trust with their customers.

For banks, the matter pass personal data protection. Financial institutions suppose safeguard customer relationships, investment positions, and internal business information, and still get the ability to provide records give regulators, auditors, and other authorized parties.

Traditional private databases dey provide controlled access but dem no offer the open participation and interoperability wey permissionless blockchain infrastructure get. Midnight proposed approach wan combine these two characteristics without forcing institutions to publish sensitive financial activity.

How Midnight Take Combine Programmable Privacy With Financial Compliance

Midnight dey designed to support applications wey go separate publicly verifiable information from data wey suppose remain confidential.

Im architecture dey use zero-knowledge cryptography, wey allow application to prove say specific conditions don satisfy without disclosing all the underlying information. For financial services, this fit support verification of transaction requirements or customer eligibility while e limit exposure of the associated records.

Selective disclosure bring another difference. Instead make information dey universally public or permanently inaccessible, applications fit design to disclose specific data to authorized parties under defined conditions.

This no mean say every Midnight transaction go automatically satisfy financial regulations. Institutions still get responsibility to set correct identity verification, recordkeeping, access controls, and compliance procedures inside their applications.

The approach wey Syed describe reflect Midnight broader institutional strategy: to enable financial products to operate on shared blockchain infrastructure while e give businesses control over the information wey their services dey disclose.

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Monument Bank £250 Million Deposit Plan Show One Banking Use Case

The Midnight Foundation existing partnership with Monument Bank give one clear example of how this architecture suppose take operate.

The UK-regulated digital bank announce plans to tokenize up to £250 million in interest-bearing retail deposits on Midnight. Each token go represent equivalent amount wey Monument hold, with deposits still redeemable in British pounds and under the applicable protections of the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.

The initiative get three phases. The first phase involve representing customer deposits on Midnight while e keep transaction information confidential between the bank and its customers. The second phase go introduce tokenized investment products, including exposure to real-world assets wey established investment firms dey manage, through Monument existing banking application.

The third phase suppose support Lombard-style lending, wey go allow eligible customers to borrow against investments without selling the underlying assets. The bank also plan to keep blockchain operations mostly behind its existing customer interface, so users no need to manage digital assets directly.

The project don face implementation challenges. Earlier reporting identify delays wey involve institutional custody arrangements and UK regulatory requirements, and Monument later target November for the initial rollout.

Syed appearance for SALT London no confirm whether the planned deposits don already tokenize. The £250 million figure still remain the announced target for the first phase, wey dem design to introduce confidential digital representations of regulated bank deposits on Midnight.