CACEIS is the first European asset servicing group to set up a Digital Assets business line. The activities run on a secure IT infrastructure, delivering digital asset custody services as a Digital Assets Service Provider authorised by France’s financial regulator. With a team of digital asset servicing experts, CACEIS provides key support services to clients looking to invest in digital assets or distribute tokenised securities via Blockchain.
On 1st March 2024, CACEIS launched its new Digital Assets business line, demonstrating the group’s objective to give clients a first-starter advantage and enable them to benefit from key financial technology innovations such as blockchain. The business line brings together digital asset specialists from across our network and our sister companies, covering asset custody, digital product development, sales, and support functions including compliance, legal and risk. It also has the full responsibility for deploying the technical infrastructure, providing the highly secure digital asset services, as well as promoting them.
Laurent Majchrzak, Group Head of Digital Assets, commented: "CACEIS is keen to be the benchmark asset servicing group in Europe for digital asset custody. This industry-leading custody enables our clients to take advantage of cutting-edge financial technologies within a framework that leverages our compliance and AML expertise and provides an IT environment as secure as that of traditional asset custody".
The range of digital asset services covers the entire value chain, including issuance and distribution of tokenised fund units all the way to custody of tokenised financial instruments and digital assets.
Digital asset custody is fully integrated with CACEIS' IT systems, and built on the robust suite of digital platforms developed by Taurus, a leading global technology company specialising in Blockchain and digital assets. With Taurus’s technology, CACEIS benefits from a highly secure environment for storing private keys, connects to the major Blockchains including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH) and Polygon, and tokenises shares in listed and unlisted asset funds. CACEIS also relies on Scorechain, Europe's premier compliance solution provider for the Blockchain ecosystem.
The new operational framework for digital assets is integrated with CACEIS' existing fund custody and distribution systems. Clients can now develop tokenised financial asset or digital asset portfolios, or choose to convert only part of a portfolio to a digital asset class. These assets will be stored on the Blockchain and benefit from the same reporting as traditional assets. Clients using CACEIS’ transfer agency services or, in France, RNI, can use an extended register to enable their investors on various platforms connected to the Blockchain, to open investor accounts online and subscribe to tokenised fund units held in dedicated wallets as an alternative to the positions held today in the same funds on traditional registers.
Laurent Majchrzak added: "By offering secure digital asset custody solutions, CACEIS aims to be recognised in the Blockchain ecosystem as the first trusted European third party to innovate in this new ecosystem for the benefit of its clients. In June 2023, CACEIS became the first third-party custodian to obtain Digital Asset Service Provider (DASP) status. We are continuing in the same vein and are now preparing for authorisation under the European MiCA regulation.”
The creation of this new Digital Assets business line represents another major step that demonstrates CACEIS' ability to give clients a first-starter advantage for new disruptive technologies such as Blockchain. CACEIS has everything in place to provide robust support for clients as they explore the business opportunities presented by financial technology innovation.
In addition to the new business line, CACEIS is also closely involved with Crédit Agricole's Digital Asset Group, lending our expertise in digital asset custody expertise to the working group. This Digital Asset Group combines the strengths and expertise of various entities in the field of Blockchain to ensure an optimal, coordinated response to changing client needs.
