Deutsche Börse and Swisscom to build digital asset infrastructure
Deutsche Börse, IT services provider Swisscom and fintech firm Sygnum have teamed up to build a digital asset infrastructure on blockchain.
“The partnership combines unique know-how in the fields of digital assets, banking, compliance and technology”
According to Deutsche Börse, the tokenisation of assets, “the next major phase of asset digitisation”, has the potential to reshape global financial markets.
To tap into this market, the trio will offer a “regulatory compliant ecosystem”. The core elements of the solution will include issuance, custody, access to liquidity, and banking services – all using distributed ledger technology (DLT).
Jens Hachmeister, managing director, DLT, crypto assets and new market structure, Deutsche Börse, says: “Switzerland, known to be a nucleus for financial markets innovation, is the ideal starting point for Deutsche Börse to drive this evolution forward.”
Roger Wüthrich-Hasenböhler, chief digital officer of Swisscom, adds: “The partnership combines unique know-how in the fields of digital assets, banking, compliance and technology.”
The partnership includes an investment by Deutsche Börse in Custodigit. The company was founded in 2018 as a joint venture by Swisscom and Sygnum. The latter is a Swiss and Singapore-based company.
Custodigit provides a solution for the custody of digital assets for regulated financial services institutions. The integrated platform allows bank customers to manage the life cycle of their digital assets.
Furthermore, Deutsche Börse and Sygnum will become shareholders of Daura. The company has developed a platform that uses DLT to issue, transfer and register Swiss SME shares, enabling non-listed companies to access the capital markets.
As part of this infrastructure plan, Deutsche Börse and Sygnum are working on a listing and trading venue for digital assets in the Swiss market.
After obtaining a Swiss banking and securities dealer licence from the Swiss regulator FINMA, Sygnum will provide banking services such as custody, deposits, credit and lending, capital issuance via tokenisation, brokerage and asset management within the ecosystem.
There are no specifics, but their first products and services provided by the new ecosystem are expected to be launched this year.
The transaction is subject to merger control clearance.
Just last week, Commerzbank and Deutsche Börse used DLT to execute a legally binding settlement of a repo transaction.
