BNY moved a tokenised US Treasury from purchase and settlement into overnight financing with Citadel Securities, demonstrating its use as collateral within an established repo platform. Standard Chartered’s launch of RLUSD custody marked another operational step, although its proposed use as trading collateral remains under development. Alongside these developments, the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI) and the International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) clarified how market infrastructure operators should fund their resilience against business losses. Read more on the week’s key developments: 1. BNY completes tokenised Treasury repo with Citadel Securities On 13 October, BNY announced that Citadel Securities had purchased a two-year US Treasury note through BNY on Tradeweb. A tokenised representation settled within minutes on BNY’s private digital ledger before being used as collateral in an overnight triparty repurchase agreement. BNY provided the cash financing and said this marked the first use of tokenised assets on a major triparty repo platform. The transaction connects established repo infrastructure with tokenised Treasury settlement within minutes, compared with the standard next-business-day cycle for Treasury purchases. BNY plans additional digital cash and tokenised deposit capabilities, building on deposit representations introduced in January. In a separate initiative involving traditional infrastructure, it expects to extend operating hours for platforms handling Federal Reserve-eligible securities and US triparty transactions, with expansion into European and Asian trading hours envisaged for 2027. 2. CPMI–IOSCO clarifies financial safeguards against market infrastructure business losses Final guidance published on 14 October by CPMI and IOSCO clarifies how financial market infrastructures should manage business losses and maintain equity-funded liquid resources to support operations, recovery or orderly wind-down. These losses can arise from negative cash flows or unexpectedly high operating expenses and are distinct from participant-default losses. The report supplements the Principles for Financial Market Infrastructures following a November 2025 consultation. Principle 15 of the existing CPMI–IOSCO standards already calls for equity-funded liquid net assets equivalent to at least six months of current operating expenses. The amount must also reflect business risks and the time needed for recovery or wind-down, so meeting the six-month floor alone does not establish sufficiency. Following an assessment that identified implementation weaknesses, the guidance clarifies application of the existing standard rather than introducing additional standards. 3. LSEG reports faster historical market-data analysis using NVIDIA technology On 14 October, London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) announced a collaboration with NVIDIA to accelerate analysis of Tick History, its historical trade and quote database. Benchmark analysis using NVIDIA cuDF and Polars reduced processing time for analysis covering multiple years from hours to seconds. LSEG said the approach preserved data licences, permissions and access controls without creating another full copy of the underlying dataset. The collaboration comes alongside growing use of Tick History, with customer requests through its application programming interfaces increasing 48% in the first half of 2026. LSEG described a shift away from market-close data loading and overnight analysis. Faster processing could let researchers examine historical conditions during the trading day rather than wait for a batch run. 4. SGX securities turnover rises as currency futures outperform wider derivatives On 12 October, Singapore Exchange (SGX) reported September securities-market turnover of SGD 42.2 billion ($32.9 billion), up 27% year on year. July-to-September turnover rose 31% year on year to SGD 132 billion ($103.1 billion). September derivatives volume fell 2% year on year to 29.8 million contracts, although the quarterly total increased 4% year-on-year to 90.8 million. Securities daily average turnover also rose 27%, showing that September’s increase was not simply attributable to more trading days. The derivatives decline masked strong currency activity. September USD/CNH futures volume rose 47% year on year to 4.9 million contracts, while INR/USD futures increased 59% to 3.9 million. For July–September, SGX also reported year-on-year open-interest increases of 27% and 55%, respectively, indicating growth in outstanding positions alongside trading activity. 5. Federated Hermes plans tokenised fund access through US broker-dealers On 13 October, Federated Hermes and Prometheum announced a partnership to distribute tokenised securities products through Prometheum’s US-regulated broker-dealer infrastructure. The first fund product is expected in the first quarter of 2027. ProFinancial will support distribution, while Prometheum Capital will provide custody, clearing and settlement. Its correspondent clearing platform will make the products available to introducing broker-dealers, targeting brokerage accounts and adviser relationships. Federated Hermes is pursuing different distribution structures across markets. In September, it announced an Asia-Pacific arrangement under which a Conduit-managed fund would invest in its Short-Term US Prime Fund, with the Conduit fund’s shares tokenised for institutional and wholesale investors. The Prometheum partnership instead targets the US brokerage channel. The first US product’s structure and terms remain undisclosed. 6. Standard Chartered launches RLUSD custody as collateral integration progresses On 12 October, Standard Chartered announced live institutional custody of Ripple USD (RLUSD), a US dollar-backed stablecoin, on the XRP Ledger. Eligible clients can access the service through its Dubai International Financial Centre branch, regulated by the Dubai Financial Services Authority. The bank is also working with Ripple and LMAX Group to make RLUSD eligible collateral for agreed trading products, subject to documentation, testing, regulation, internal approvals and jurisdictional readiness. The proposed model separates safekeeping from trading access. LMAX would recognise eligible RLUSD as collateral while the tokens remained in Standard Chartered’s custody, avoiding their direct transfer to the venue. The parties expect this to reduce transfer-related operational risk and optimise counterparty exposure. Custody is operational; the collateral integration is still planned. 7. Franklin Templeton and Animoca Brands plan wider tokenised investment distribution On 9 October, Franklin Templeton and Animoca Brands announced a collaboration to bring tokenised real-world assets to NUVA, an Animoca-backed vault marketplace. The initiative would broaden its issuer base beyond existing Provenance blockchain-based assets. Co-incubated by Animoca Brands and Nuva Labs, NUVA launched in May 2026. The announcement named no specific Franklin Templeton fund being added or launch date for a new offering. Franklin Templeton already operates tokenised investments. Its Franklin OnChain US Government Money Fund launched in 2021, using blockchain-integrated technology to process transactions and record share ownership; peer-to-peer transfers followed in 2024. The collaboration would build on those capabilities by extending distribution through a marketplace initially focused on assets on one blockchain. 8. Clearstream excludes transfer-agent funds from December migration On 12 October, Clearstream updated its Unified for New Opportunities (UNO) Wave 4 notice, excluding transfer-agent mutual funds from the planned 4 December activation. Domestic mutual funds and domestic exchange-traded funds in covered markets remain in scope. The migration covers eligible securities from Argentina, Hungary, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Romania and Thailand, alongside American depositary receipts covered by the German-market migration. A revised transfer-agent fund timetable is expected later in October. Covered securities will become eligible for settlement through the Eurosystem’s TARGET2-Securities platform via Clearstream’s Luxembourg network, alongside asset-servicing changes. Clients must transfer relevant holdings into Clearstream Europe accounts to support German stock-exchange activity, even as existing 6-series accounts remain open until the planned final migration in the second quarter of 2027. 9. State Street reports servicing-fee growth alongside $59.2 trillion asset base On 14 October, State Street reported assets under custody and/or administration of $59.2 trillion at 30 September 2026, up 15% year on year. Third-quarter servicing fees increased 10% to $1.492 billion. The bank disclosed $429 billion of new servicing asset wins and $68 million of estimated annual servicing-fee revenue wins. It also secured its first Wealth Services mandate with a large US registered investment adviser. State Street attributed servicing-fee growth to organic expansion and higher average market levels. New revenue wins were primarily driven by back-office and alternatives mandates. At quarter-end, it had $332 million in estimated annual servicing-fee revenue awaiting installation. Bringing those mandates into service offers a further source of revenue growth, although its timing depends on implementation. 10. Zodia Custody announces expanded Abu Dhabi digital securities permission On 12 October, Zodia Custody said Abu Dhabi Global Market’s Financial Services Regulatory Authority had expanded the permission held by its subsidiary, Tungsten Custody Solutions Limited. Zodia said the variation allowed custody of digital securities, including tokenised securities, with tokenised money markets an initial focus. The announcement identified no first client mandate or custody balance. Zodia acquired Tungsten in June 2025, gaining an existing regulated custody operation in Abu Dhabi. The reported expansion would extend that business’s capabilities beyond its existing virtual-asset custody activity. Zodia said treasury clients were holding tokenised funds alongside stablecoins for cash management and collateral, giving the expansion a defined institutional use case.
