ING to develop custody project for digital assets

The custody project, which is being run out of Amsterdam, is still in its early days and is one of the bank’s several initiatives around blockchain. The bank sees opportunities both on asset backed and native security tokens and is particularly focused on developing the technology behind these assets to give its clients a compliant way to access the emerging sector.

Many large financial companies are hoping that traditional assets such as bonds or stocks can be turned into digital assets and be issued and transferred using blockchain technology, Reuters added. Furthermore, they believe this could help streamline and reduce costs in some complex capital market processes.

Still, while banks and other financial companies continue to invest in developing blockchain, the technology has yet to deliver on its promise. A review by Reuters of more than 33 projects involving large companies testing blockchain tech over the past four years, revealed that many have not gone beyond the testing phase.