Digital assets are moving into the operating model of traditional securities services just as custody itself becomes more integrated with cash, liquidity and foreign exchange (FX). For Deutsche Bank, the challenge is not simply to add custody for a new asset class, but to connect it with the broader services institutional clients already use. Paul Maley, Managing Director, Global Head of Trust and Securities Services and CEO of Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas, said the bank had recently put its digital asset custody business live and is using Sibos in Miami to discuss the service with clients at scale. That puts digital asset custody alongside the bank's established securities services capabilities as it develops a broader institutional proposition around tokenised assets. Maley linked that development with a broader compression of the custody chain. New technologies are pushing securities processing closer to real-time settlement, while clients increasingly expect providers to integrate more deeply into their own operating ecosystems. Custody is becoming a more integrated service Clients, Maley said, want Deutsche Bank to take more work out of their operations while combining products that historically sat in separate service lines. He said traditional custody is increasingly being connected with FX, liquidity services and cash management as a more cohesive proposition. Maley distinguished the bank's use of artificial intelligence (AI) from its digital asset strategy. He said AI is already being adopted at pace in Deutsche Bank's trust and securities services business, while digital assets represent a genuinely new asset class. He nevertheless said both technologies are contributing to a shorter custody chain and movement beyond T+1 settlement towards T+0. Deutsche Bank is not choosing one form of digital money Regulatory developments are also changing what regulated institutions can bring to market. Maley said new legislation in Europe and North America is providing clearer guardrails for financial institutions such as Deutsche Bank to develop digital asset products and make them relevant to clients. Maley said he does not expect one digital form to displace all others. Stablecoins, tokenised deposits and tokenised securities could each develop different roles, and Deutsche Bank's position is not to pick a winner but to remain relevant across those markets as they mature. For a global securities-services provider, that means preparing for several forms of assets and money rather than assuming the market will converge quickly on a single model. The strategic value lies in being able to service clients as those markets develop alongside conventional securities infrastructure. Private markets could be an important proving ground Maley said he is particularly interested in the implications for private markets, where tokenisation can address both operating inefficiencies and the way assets are used. As head of Deutsche Bank's corporate trust business, he considers the development directly relevant to servicing privately issued assets. He separated that opportunity from changes in repo and collateral markets, where he expects potentially significant market structure and microstructure changes over the coming years. New technology, he said, gives established institutions tools to disrupt parts of their own operating model rather than wait for others to do so. The strategic question is how the pieces connect Maley's account of the custody business going live places it within a broader proposition rather than as a standalone launch. Clients increasingly want a provider embedded in their ecosystem and able to combine securities services with adjacent transaction banking capabilities. That makes digital asset custody one component of a wider infrastructure question. As tokenised securities, stablecoins and tokenised deposits develop, the value of custody will increasingly depend on how well it connects to settlement, liquidity, FX and cash. For Deutsche Bank, the next phase is therefore less about demonstrating that it can custody digital assets than about showing how those assets can operate within the same institutional service model as conventional securities. That integration will determine whether a shorter custody chain also becomes a more useful one for clients.
