On Thursday (June 10), Ronald P. O’Hanley, chairman and CEO of Street Street Corporation, one of the world’s largest custodian banks, explained why his firm is creating a digital finance division.

229-year-old State Street, which is headquartered in Boston, is one of the largest asset management firms in the world, and is ranked as the second largest global custodian (with $21.35 trillion in assets under custody) according to Institutional Investor.

Yesterday (June 10), CNBC reported that State Street is creating a division called “State Street Digital” that is “dedicated to digital finance, which will comprise cryptocurrency, central bank digital currency, blockchain technology and tokenization”. This will be “integrated with its proprietary electronic trading platform, which the bank plans to develop into one that can support crypto assets as well as other asset classes”.

The State Street CEO said in a statement:

“We see digital assets as one of the most significant forces impacting our industry over the next five years… Digital assets are quickly becoming integrated into the existing framework of financial services, and it is critical we have the tools in place to provide our clients with solutions for both their traditional investment needs as well as their increased digital needs.“

The CNBC report says that “Nadine Chakar, head of global markets at State Street, will lead the division and report to chief operating officer Lou Maiuri”.

BNY Mellon, which is the oldest bank in the U.S. and the world’s largest custodian bank, announced on February 11 “the formation of a new enterprise Digital Assets unit that will accelerate the development of solutions and capabilities to help clients address growing and evolving needs related to the growth of digital assets, including cryptocurrencies”.

Its press release went on to say that a “cross-functional, cross-business team, which will be led by Mike Demissie, head of Advanced Solutions at BNY Mellon, is currently developing a client-facing prototype that is designed to be the industry’s first multi-asset digital custody and administration platform for traditional and digital assets”.

DISCLAIMER

The views and opinions expressed by the author, or any people mentioned in this article, are for informational purposes only, and they do not constitute financial, investment, or other advice. Investing in or trading cryptoassets comes with a risk of financial loss.

IMAGE CREDIT

Photo by “Donbrandon” via Pixabay