The Swiss Stock Exchange will take a major stake in Custodigit, the joint venture created by telecom and IT giant Swisscom and digital asset bank Sygnum in 2018, to build an institutional digital asser gateway.
Subject to the appropriate regulatory approvals, SIX Digital Exchange and Custodigit will offer a gateway that supports the complete investment value-chain from trading, to smart order routing, settlement, custody as well as access to secondary markets.
In addition, it aims to enable banks to develop new financial services and future products around cryptocurrencies and digital assets for their customers. The partnership will also build upon the SIX investment earlier this year in Omniex, an institutional trading platform for digital assets.
Thsi month also saw the exchange operator, along with the Swiss National Bank (SNB) and the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) conducta proof-of-concept experiment that integrates tokenised digital assets and central bank money.
A bank, depending on its strategic objectives, can leverage Custodigit’s offering either through a direct platform integration solution, or a managed sub-custody arrangement already provided by Sygnum, which was the first digital asset bank to be formally recognised by FINMA, the Swiss regulator.
An initial joint service, based on the already available Custodigit platform, will be released in the first quarter of next year with plans to add significant capabilities throughout the 2021.
According to Thomas Zeeb, chairman SIX Digital Exchange and member executive board, SIX, “Coupled with our recent CBDC announcement with the SNB and BIS, this is potentially one of the most significant shifts in the digital finance space right now. Custodigit is a functioning operator for digital asset servicing – not just an idea to be realised.”
He said this latest deal shows that “we have the perfect balance of elements to allow clients to access the digital markets to meet their needs Today, and for the future.’
Peter Hofmann, CEO, Custodigit said, ‘This partnership with SIX offers us the ability and conviction to strengthen and globalise our offering. It enables us to bring more value to what is clearly going to be the future of capital markets.’
Johannes Höhener, head FinTech of Swisscom added, ‘Digital assets will fundamentally change the financial industry. By combining the strengths of Switzerland’s leading financial infrastructure providers, we are enabling banks – in Switzerland and beyond – to quickly enter a new financial services era. A historic opportunity.’
©BestExecution 2020
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