LONDON, March 30, 2026, 17:12 (BST).
Standard Chartered has tapped Ole Matthiessen, formerly of Deutsche Bank, to lead its freshly formed transaction services and digital assets division within the corporate and investment bank. The bank said Monday that Matthiessen will take the role from Singapore, reporting directly to corporate and investment bank CEO Roberto Hoornweg. 1
The post folds in trade, payments, cash management, custody, and core clearing and settlement—layering on digital assets like cryptocurrencies and tokenised securities, which are simply digitised takes on standard assets. The timing isn’t random: StanChart has been shifting more weight onto fee-generating operations, and this month, U.S. regulators told banks they won’t get special capital treatment for tokenised securities versus the old-school kind. 2
Just four days ago, the bank brought in Jan Metzger—Citigroup’s co-head of Asia investment banking—to serve as global head of coverage banking, tacking on another senior name to Hoornweg’s roster. The new hire follows that move and comes only weeks after Standard Chartered posted a 16% jump in 2025 pretax profit and global banking income climbed 15%. 3
Hoornweg described Matthiessen as “a fantastic addition.” In his view, bringing together transaction banking, financing, and securities services alongside digital assets is set to strengthen the bank’s cross-border proposition for both corporate and financial-institution clients. 2
Standard Chartered has been at this for some time. Back in July 2025, the bank rolled out spot bitcoin and ether trading to institutional clients—CEO Bill Winters at the time called digital assets a “foundational element” in finance’s evolution. According to company documents, Standard Chartered now delivers custody, trading, and tokenisation, working both through the bank itself and with ventures like Zodia Custody, Zodia Markets, and Libeara. 4
Institutional interest in the broader market hasn’t let up. Midas CEO Dennis Dinkelmeyer told Reuters on Monday that his tokenisation startup is seeing “growing interest from larger institutions.” Earlier this month, U.S. regulators clarified that banks won’t be hit with additional capital charges on tokenised securities. 5
Rivals aren’t standing still. HSBC landed the mandate in February to handle Britain’s pilot tokenised government bond offering. Deutsche Bank, for its part, announced back in 2023 plans to safeguard crypto and tokenised assets for institutional players. 6
The overall revenue pool? Still tough to pin down. Tokenised debt barely scratches the surface of global capital markets for now, and Midas flagged that regulatory gray areas—plus heavyweight banks muscling in—could keep mass uptake on ice. 6
Standard Chartered says Matthiessen is set to come aboard the CIB management team in Singapore. Up next for the bank: first-quarter results, due out April 30. 2
