Where Finance Finds Its Future

On 15 October 2024 Future of Finance hosted a one-day event at the offices of AON in London. Entitled Tokenisation of securities and funds is going to happen. How will you and your organisation survive it?, the event attracted 200 registrants from banks, asset managers, brokers, central banks, financial market infrastructures and FinTechs. This is an account of what they contributed to the six panels that day, as well as what they learned from the panellists and each other.This episode is a summary of Panel 4, titled "How a common platform or unified ledger could unleash network effects in the token markets". The Panellists taking part were Ami Ben-David, Founder and CEO of Ownera; Austen Appleby, Senior Product Manager – Interoperability at R3; Edward Glyn, Managing Director and Head of Global Markets at Calastone; Emma Landriault, Vice President, Incubation and Architecture at J.P. Morgan Onyx Coin Systems; Jørgen Ouaknine, Global Head of Innovation and Digital Assets at Euroclear; and Lisa McClory, Digital Technologies Lead at D2 Legal Technology. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On 15 October 2024 Future of Finance hosted a one-day event at the offices of AON in London. Entitled Tokenisation of securities and funds is going to happen. How will you and your organisation survive it?, the event attracted 200 registrants from banks, asset managers, brokers, central banks, financial market infrastructures and FinTechs. This is an account of what they contributed to the six panels that day, as well as what they learned from the panellists and each other.This episode is a summary of Panel 3, titled "Reasons other than lack of digital money that explain why tokenised securities and funds have failed to scale". The Panellists taking part were Jochen Metzger, Global Head of Markets at NowCM Group and CEO at NowCM Finance; Muneeb Shah, Head of Digital Assets Technology consulting at EY UK; Kushal Balluck, Senior Manager, Digital Securities Sandbox and Post Trade Innovation at the Bank of England; Soren Mortensen, Director, Global Financial Markets, at IBM; and Valérie Gilles Chief Commercial Officer and Partner at IZNES. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On 15 October 2024 Future of Finance hosted a one-day event at the offices of AON in London. Entitled Tokenisation of securities and funds is going to happen. How will you and your organisation survive it?, the event attracted 200 registrants from banks, asset managers, brokers, central banks, financial market infrastructures and FinTechs. This is an account of what they contributed to the six panels that day, as well as what they learned from the panellists and each other.This episode is a summary of Panel 2, titled "Can securities and funds token markets can grow without genuine digital money on-chain?". The Panellists taking part were Damien Fontanille, Head of Business Development at Société Générale-FORGE; Jason Webb, Director of Web 3 at SS&C Technologies; Ben Brophy, Head of Blockchain at Fidelity International; and Daniel Coheur, Co-founder and Chief Commercial Officer (CCO) of Tokeny. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On 15 October 2024 Future of Finance hosted a one-day event at the offices of AON in London. Entitled Tokenisation of securities and funds is going to happen. How will you and your organisation survive it?, the event attracted 200 registrants from banks, asset managers, brokers, central banks, financial market infrastructures and FinTechs. This is an account of what they contributed to the six panels that day, as well as what they learned from the panellists and each other.This episode is a summary of Panel 1, titled "Why are the tokenised securities and fund markets failing to scale?". The Panellists taking part were Stefano Dalavalle, Head of Product – Digital Assets at R3; Sean Mullins, Senior Vice President - Digital Assets and Financial Markets at Northern Trust Corporation; Stephen Whyman, Head of Debt Capital Markets, EMEA at Fidelity International Ltd (FIL); Sara Hall, Partner at Walkers; and Natasha Benson, COO/CFO at Ownera. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A Future of Finance Fire Chat 'How the obstacles to scalable tokenisation are being cleared', with special guests Andreas Rufflin of BX Digital and Benedikt Schuppli of Obligate. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The major traditional exchanges have adapted well to the migration of transactional activity to other trading platforms, notably by developing their data and post-trade revenues, so it is surprising that they remain indifferent to tokenisation. With some notable exceptions, traditional stock exchanges have shown little interest in the revolutionary potential of issuing, trading and servicing tokens. Explanations for this indifference vary. Some say the existing markets (especially equity trading) are already so efficient that tokenisation is unnecessary. The fact that exchanges which have invested in tokenisation have yet to earn a return, and are now making economies, is not encouraging. If tokenisation ever does take off, add some larger exchanges, they could simply acquire the successful platforms. The long lists of intermediaries that stand between issuers and investors – global brokers, local brokers, clearing houses, securities depositories, payments banks, custodian banks and so on – also have limited incentives to encourage the emergence of peer-to-peer exchanges. So even the leading traditional stock exchange groups are focusing on a narrow range of token opportunities, such as cryptocurrencies and privately managed assets, and leaving potential lavish operational cost savings and new product earnings untouched. Dominic Hobson, co-founder of Future of Finance, moderated a discussion of about traditional stock exchanges and tokenisation with Marco Kessler, business head of digital securities at six Digital Exchange SDX, Hirander Misra, chairman and CEO of GMEX Group, Ricardo Correia, a partner in the financial services practice at Bain and Company, Benedikt Schuppli, co-founder and CBDO at Obligate and Miryusup Abdullaev, managing director of the Deutsche Börse Digital Exchange (DBDX). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Peter Hughes and Bruce Jackson from Apex Group discuss their innovative approach to fund administration, focusing on technology, tokenization, and ESG integration. They highlight Apex's investments in blockchain technologies and tokenized funds, setting them apart in the industry. Topics include successful transactions on the blockchain, acquisitions in the digital assets space, and the future of cryptocurrencies in managed accounts.

A Future of Finance interview with Robert Koller, co-founder and CEO at NowCM, and Jochen Metzger, Global Head of Markets at NowCM.The bond and money markets have emerged, for different reasons, as early targets for transformation through the application of blockchain technology. Although the illiquidity of the corporate bond markets in particular is a tempting target for blockchains and tokenisers, several new ventures have aimed instead to improve the notoriously under-digitalised primary market issuance process. A number, despite the materiality of the opportunity, have failed already. But survival is not the only risen why the stealthier rise of NowCM is of interest. The reasons behind its steady success so far include a focus on solving primary market inefficiencies with accurate data rather than process-transforming technology; a commitment to an open rather than a closed network that attracts other specialist service providers and facilitates unthreatening partnerships with both established debt market networks and other start-ups; a recognition that it is wiser to work with the incumbent sell-side intermediaries rather than against them, not least because the buy-side continues to want them to be involved; a preference for conventional technologies that minimise the cost and complexity of connecting users and delivering services; and, lastly, a number of astute acquisitions that have secured solid revenues as well as valuable technology and useful client relationships. Dominic Hobson, co-founder of the Future of Finance, spoke to Robert Koller, co-founder and CEO at NowCOM, and Jochen Metzger, formerly a senior official at the Bundesbank who is now Global Head of Markets at NowCM, about the origins, products, strategy and growth plans of a business that describes itself as both a “data company” and a ”new era market infrastructure.” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nadine Chakar, an expert in blockchain technology, discusses DTCC's move towards tokenization in American capital markets, emphasizing the importance of collaboration and infrastructure. They explore proof of concepts, interoperability, compliance, and user governance to enhance digital asset tokenization.

A Future of Finance interview with Jürgen Schaaf, an economic adviser to the European Central Bank (ECB).After Bitcoin first appeared in 2009 extravagant claims were made for its benefits. It would replace fiat currency as the money used by consumers in day-to-day transactions. Bitcoin would hold its value in a way that no fiat currency, being issued by central banks and intermediated by commercial banks, will ever manage. The centralised institutions profiting from the prevailing system of finance would all be disintermediated, giving way to a series of decentralised peer-to-peer networks that had no need of formal structures of trust or explicit measures to protect personal privacy. 15 years on, Bitcoin is a US$1.25 trillion speculative asset, which has proved spectacularly its uselessness as form of money and a means of disintermediation. Yet Bitcoin has remained surprisingly immune to searching criticism, in large part because its cheerleaders in social media and elsewhere have drowned out or ridiculed dissenting voices, and waged a successful (if ironic) campaign to turn Bitcoin into a respectable asset worthy of the attention of regulated banks and savings institutions. The success of these efforts in driving the value of Bitcoin upwards at a compound annual rate of 172 per cent since 2011 has not only made some of those voices extremely rich but made it hard for critics to build a sustained as well as coherent critique of the cryptocurrency. But since he published, in November 2022, “Bitcoin’s last stand,” the first of several papers questioning the economic rationale of Bitcoin, Jürgen Schaaf, an economic adviser to the European Central Bank (ECB), has developed exactly that. He spoke to Future of Finance Co-founder Dominic Hobson. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.