BNP Joins Digital Assets Custody Battle

BNP Paribas Securities Services has become the latest provider to throw its hat into the ring offering custody services for digital assets by announcing a partnership with Metaco and Fireblocks to develop a solution.

The bank has selected Fireblocks as its hot wallet, tokenisation, and connectivity infrastructure layer. As a first step, BNP Paribas Securities Services will use Fireblocks’ solution in their on-going experimentation with the settlement and custody of regulated security tokens. Most recently, BNP Paribas Securities Services leveraged Fireblocks’ solution in a live experiment on the settlement and custody of a non-listed digital bond in the French market.

The bank has also recently selected Metaco with the intention to integrate the fintech’s digital asset custody and orchestration platform into its existing infrastructure. The platform will underpin the bank’s institutional custody offering and unify governance across its multiple systems, allowing institutional clients to store, issue and settle digital securities alongside their traditional assets.

“These partnerships represent a new milestone for us, allowing us to build a multi-asset, multi-provider platform which, once the regulatory framework allows, will offer full connectivity across traditional and digital assets,” says Wayne Hughes, head of digital assets at BNP Paribas Securities Services. “Our objective is to offer our clients a single view of all these different types of assets for complete transparency, greater operational efficiency and risk management. Leveraging on the combined expertise of leading technical providers, will allow us to extend our custody offering to a wider scope of regulated digital assets as the market evolves.”

In recent weeks Metaco has signed deals with Société Générale and Citi to support digital asset custody solution as more banks seek to join traditional custody giants like BNY Mellon and State Street in offering services in the nascent asset class.