America’s oldest bank, BNY Mellon, is making significant strides towards embracing innovation in the digital assets sector. The bank initially ventured into the Bitcoin market in 2021 – a landmark event for mainstream adoption of this once-niche asset. BNY Mellon stated its intention to manage, transfer, and facilitate the issuance of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies for its esteemed asset-management clientele.
Roman Regelman, Chief Executive of BNY Mellon’s asset-servicing and digital businesses, elaborated on the bank’s commitment to advancing initiatives revolving around distributed ledger technology (DLT), tokenization, and digital cash. However, cryptocurrencies do not hold the highest priority within the bank’s strategic focus, as CEO Robin Vince emphasized their cautious and deliberate approach in the crypto space during a first-quarter earnings call last month.
BNY Mellon is now actively pursuing three key initiatives. Firstly, they are expanding their services to include custody and clearing for digital assets, broadening their offerings to encompass new asset classes. “Everything that we do, we want to do for digital assets,” Regelman said. Secondly, they are prioritizing the implementation of blockchain and other technologies to modernize their infrastructure. Lastly, the bank aims to explore tokenization as a means to democratize investment opportunities.
An October 2022 study sponsored by BNY Mellon found that a staggering 91% of institutional investors expressed interest in investing in tokenized assets. Michael Demissie, a managing director at BNY Mellon, said that this study shows that “minds are changing, with traditional investors ready to imagine a world where up to one-third of their portfolios will contain digital assets.”
Regelman expressed a long-term perspective for the bank’s vision, emphasizing that it encompasses multiple timeframes simultaneously. He added that within the next 1.5 years, BNY Mellon plans to undertake several initiatives to expand its existing businesses. Artificial intelligence plays a crucial role within the bank’s risk management organization, and BNY Mellon has also appointed a dedicated chief risk officer responsible for overseeing digital assets and data as essential aspects of the business.
As of March 31, 2023, BNY Mellon managed a staggering $46.6 trillion in assets under custody and $1.9 trillion in assets under management across 35 countries. With the bank’s firm commitment to long-term digital asset initiatives, the financial sector’s future is poised to be increasingly interwoven with emerging technologies such as DLT, blockchain, and tokenization. However, striking the right balance between innovation and risk management remains a crucial aspect on the path to broader digital asset adoption.
Source: Blockworks
