Nadine Chakar, managing director and global head of DTCC Digital Assets, testified before the House Financial Services Subcommittee on Digital Assets on the potential for tokenization to transform today’s financial markets through further automation, increased efficiency and lower costs.
In the hearing, entitled “Next Generation Infrastructure: How Tokenization of Real-World Assets Will Facilitate Efficient Markets,” Chakar testified to the many benefits that could be offered by employing digital ledger technology in transaction processing and lifecycle management of real-world financial assets, such as tokenized securities in the US markets. Chakar also discussed the challenges inherent in developing an integrated digital assets platform for the industry, noting that “technology on its own will not change the markets – it will require collaboration and coordination among all stakeholders, and it needs to be measured and thoughtful.”
Chakar also explained that DTCC recently worked with the financial industry to create a comprehensive set of risk management principles and controls designed to unlock the transformative nature of digital asset solutions. These principles will be used to guide pilots and will aim to reduce ecosystem risks and advance the merging of tokenized securities markets. The principles include legal certainty, regulatory compliance, resilience and security, safeguarding customer assets, connectivity and interoperability, and operational scalability.
DTCC has been working to advance the tokenization of traditional financial assets for close to a decade. In December 2023, DTCC acquired Securrency, now known as DTCC Digital Assets, which provides institutional-grade infrastructure and products to facilitate end-to-end lifecycle processing for tokenized traditional financial assets.
“At DTCC, we believe digital securities offer the exciting potential of capturing the benefits of tokenization and could ultimately help push the financial markets toward a more streamlined and resilient ecosystem – where blockchain networks and traditional industry rails seamlessly integrate. That said, this potential environment needs to be one that is subject to the same gold standard of regulatory principles and requirements that protect investors today,” Chakar wrote.