«Finance is Transforming to a Digital Economy»

Decentralized finance, digital currencies and tokenization have continued to gather momentum amid the pandemic, and State Street is seeing an increase in client demand, its regional product lead said.

«We have been actively developing our digital asset functionality for a number of years now as we see digital assets and digital infrastructure as one of the most significant forces affecting our industry over the next 5 years,» Irfan Ahmad told finews.asia in an interview.

Ahmad, who is currently based in Singapore and is the regional lead for State Street Digital, the firm’s newest division, launched in June this year.

The division focuses on digital assets and technologies and encompasses the set up of a new integrated business and operating model to support clients’ entire digital investment cycle from pre-trade, trade, and post-trade, as well as other initiatives designed to enhance the client experience.

Investor Interest 

According to Ahmad, the rationale for digital assets from investors’ perspective seems to be around the creation of new market settlement solutions based on value transfer rather than limited to the transfer of information, increased operational efficiencies, and the potential for enhanced liquidity and ease of distribution. 

«Family offices and hedge funds were the first movers, while other institutions such as large asset managers and asset owners have been investigating and observing short-term benefits as well as greater clarity in…