Tokenised Assets.

Capital markets in transition.

The tokenisation of financial instruments is taking on an increasingly important role in tomorrow’s capital markets. Tokenised securities and fund units give issuers, custodians and other holders new ways to make processes more efficient, more transparent and more automated.

What sounds straightforward in theory raises concrete questions for settlement platforms, banks, exchanges and FinTechs in practice: how do new token lifecycle processes fit into existing core banking systems? What is the supervisory classification? Which legal structure suits the use case? And which platform and partners are appropriate?

On top of that, tokenisation is regulated differently in every country and common standards barely exist so far. We concentrate on the jurisdictions that matter to our clients — above all Germany, Luxembourg and Switzerland.

What we do (selection)

• Structuring and supporting concepts for tokenised securities in primary and secondary markets
• Licensing procedures for maintaining the crypto securities register (eWpG)
• Advising on and building processes for issuers and custodians covering tokenised securities and fund units across the entire lifecycle
• Preparing and supporting issuance processes for issuers as well as settlement and custodian banks — on public and private DLT networks
• Design and implementation of tokenised fund units (KryptoFAV)
• Advice and due diligence on selecting suitable registrars, tokenisation and custody partners

Why now?

The competitive advantage from tokenisation is still modest today. But whoever is the only one not engaging with it, once everyone else has, is at a considerable disadvantage. Relevant market participants are increasingly working through the framework and the technology in order to establish their offering and their position as early movers.

Selected engagements (anonymised)

• Led the issuance of the first significant crypto security (eWpG) on a public DLT network by a DAX 40 company
• Led the licensing procedure for maintaining the crypto securities register of a German private bank (licence granted)
• Developed custody and settlement processes for tokenised securities for custodian banks and depositaries
• Developed issuance, custody and settlement processes for tokenised fund units (retail AIF) together with a large real estate fund management company
• Developed scalable mass-market processes for the issuance and settlement of tokenised securities for a European settlement platform for tokenised securities