Standard Chartered Plc bank branch in Hong Kong
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Bill Winters, CEO of Standard Chartered, foresees a future in which nearly all global transactions are conducted on a digital blockchain ledger, he told a crowd in Hong Kong on Monday, as crypto adoption amongst mainstream banking and finance institutions grows.
“Our belief, which I think is shared by the leadership of Hong Kong, is that pretty much all transactions will settle on blockchains eventually, and that all money will be digital,” the UK-based multinational bank’s CEO said during a panel at Hong Kong FinTech Week.
“Think about what that means: a complete rewiring of the financial system,” he said, adding that experimentation is required to determine what that rewiring looks like.
Standard Chartered — which is listed in both London and Hong Kong — has been ramping up its involvement with digital assets in recent years, including through digital asset custody services, trading platforms, and tokenized products.
Winters made the comments while discussing Hong Kong’s role in the global digital assets space, crediting the city for leadership on experimentation and regulation, alongside Hong Kong Financial Secretary Paul Chan.
Hong Kong has been working to establish itself as a regional crypto hub through a digital asset licensing regime, as well as tokenization pilots in which Standard Chartered is a participant.
A tokenized asset is a digital representation of a real-world asset, like stocks, bonds, or commodities, that can be recorded and traded on a blockchain or distributed ledger. Stablecoins, which are pegged to a currency, are often held up as an early example of a tradable tokenized asset.
Standard Chartered, in partnership with blockchain venture capital firm Animoca Brands and telecommunications company HKT, is planning to launch a Hong Kong dollar-backed stablecoin under a new regulatory framework the city launched in August.
Winters said Monday he believed that Hong Kong dollar stablecoins can represent an interesting new medium of exchange for international trade on digital terms.
Other global fintech leaders have also made bullish predictions for tokenized assets in recent months.
Robinhood Markets CEO Vlad Tenev said last month that tokenization was a “freight train,” coming to most major markets in the next five years.
Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, the world’s largest money manager, said in April that every asset from stocks to bonds to real estate can be tokenized in what will represent a “revolution” for investing.