LONDON, March 6, 2026, 09:43 GMT
Standard Chartered is pushing deeper into tokenised finance, taking a digital-asset custody role for TP ICAP’s Fusion Digital Assets and hiring former JPMorgan Kinexys executive Naveen Mallela to run payments. Together, the steps widen the bank’s reach across custody, settlement and payment flows tied to digital assets. 1
The timing matters. U.S. regulators said on Thursday banks would not face extra capital charges on tokenised securities, while Britain last month chose HSBC’s platform for a pilot issue of digital government bonds. That adds policy backing to tokenised finance — turning conventional assets or cash claims into digital tokens on a blockchain — which supporters say could speed settlement and enable 24/7 trading. 2
TP ICAP said Standard Chartered will act as both digital-asset custodian and settlement agent for Fusion Digital Assets, its UK-based crypto trading venue, as the platform switches to a matched-principal model in March. In that setup, the broker sits between buyer and seller and becomes counterparty to both sides of the trade. 1
The broker said the structure should cut the need to post cash upfront, let clients trade first and settle later, and reduce the chance that one side fails to complete a trade. TP ICAP said the same model already runs across its wider markets business, which processed more than $200 trillion of notional value in 2025, and that Fusion plans to add stablecoins, extra fiat currencies and more digital tokens linked to traditional assets. 3
Margaret Harwood-Jones, Standard Chartered’s global head of financing and securities services, said the bank’s tools would help TP ICAP “scale its matched principal activity securely and efficiently.” Duncan Trenholme, TP ICAP’s global co-head of digital assets, called the arrangement a “key milestone” because it lets the firm settle blockchain-based assets through its own accounts for the first time. 1
Standard Chartered reinforced the same theme by naming Mallela as global head of payments. The bank said he will run a single organisation across collections, clearing and payments, and build products across traditional payment flows as well as tokenised ones recorded on blockchain networks, with Roberto Hoornweg saying his experience will be “pivotal.” 4
The hire also sharpens the competitive picture. Mallela arrives from JPMorgan’s Kinexys, the U.S. bank’s blockchain unit for real-time cross-border payments and digital-asset settlement, while HSBC is supplying the platform for Britain’s digital government bond pilot. 4
Standard Chartered is not new to the sector. It launched institutional bitcoin and ether spot trading, or immediate-delivery trading, through its UK branch in July 2025 and began digital-asset custody services in the UAE in 2024, with Brevan Howard Digital as an inaugural client. 5
The bank is making the push from a stronger earnings base. Full-year pretax profit rose 16% to $6.96 billion, it announced a $1.5 billion share buyback, and Chief Executive Bill Winters signalled he intended to stay for the next phase of strategy. 6
But the build-out still faces familiar obstacles. Citi’s Ryan Rugg said tokenisation had “taken longer” than expected, while BNP Paribas’ Julien Clausse warned that “fragmentation slows down adoption” because investors do not want to connect to too many networks. On Thursday, Reuters also reported a fresh impasse in U.S. crypto-law talks, with Stifel strategist Brian Gardner warning that “the calendar is becoming the enemy” of the bill. 7
Even so, official policy keeps inching ahead. The Bank of England has said it is open to accepting more tokenised assets as collateral, and LSEG plans a blockchain-based settlement service backed by a partner group that includes Standard Chartered, Barclays, Lloyds, NatWest and Brookfield. For now, Standard Chartered is adding pieces around custody, settlement and payments as the market waits to see whether live volumes move beyond pilots. 8
