The bank formed an enterprise Digital Assets Unit in 2021 to develop solutions for digital asset technology, with plans to launch the industry's first multi-asset platform that bridges digital and traditional asset custody.
Touching more than 20% of the world's investable assets, the bank has the scale to reimagine financial markets through blockchain technology and digital assets, says Robin Vince, Chief Executive Officer, and President at BNY Mellon.
A recent survey sponsored by BNY Mellon highlights significant institutional demand for a resilient, scalable financial infrastructure built to accommodate both traditional and digital assets. According to the survey, almost all institutional investors (91%) are interested in investing in tokenized products. Additionally, 41% of institutional investors hold cryptocurrency in their portfolio, with an additional 15% planning to hold digital assets in their portfolios within the next two to five years.
In the interview The Paypers had with BNY Mellon in August, we found out that the banking company wants to reduce check-based payments. As they see it, in an increasingly real-time world, the business benefits of moving to digital payments are undeniable.
One of the other key considerations is the impact paper-based payments have on the environment. From the bill and envelopes to the paper check itself, a lot of paper is involved in processing these payments. BNY Mellon calculated that the annual volume of checks processed for consumer bill-pay in the US equates to approximately 455,000 trees being cut down.
The need to move towards environmentally sustainable practices is gathering momentum, with policy measures relating to mandatory sustainability reporting increasingly coming into force around the world. Within this context, adopting digital payments is a way for clients to reduce the carbon footprint of their businesses.
Their aim is twofold: they want to highlight the inefficiencies of paper-based processes while, at the same time, making a positive impact on the environment.
With this in mind, the company wants to encourage the adoption of digital payment services, by offering certain fee waivers, fee holidays and price discounts to select clients – helping them to offset the cost of the transition.
In August they were exploring an innovative carbon-tracking tool. The tool uses a crowdsourced, research-driven carbon footprint formula to measure and monitor the environmental impact of a client’s paper payments. Upon discovering the environmental impact of their payments, should a client want to accelerate its paper to digital payments strategy, the experts can then help guide them away from dependency on paper-based, manual processes and towards digital options.
Every day we send out a free e-mail with the most important headlines of the last 24 hours.
Subscribe now