BNY Mellon Moves $8.6 Trillion of Fund Administration Work to Blockchain

BNY Mellon, the world's largest custodian bank, is introducing blockchain technology to fund administration operations covering $8.6 trillion in assets.

CoinDesk reported on July 29 that BNY Mellon has begun moving one of its core ledger and record-keeping functions onto blockchain infrastructure.

BNY Mellon currently safeguards and administers more than $59 trillion in assets. In its transfer agency business, which manages fund investors' ownership stakes and transaction records, the bank oversees $8.6 trillion in assets across 7.6 million accounts.

Carolyn Weinberg, BNY's chief product and innovation officer, said the initiative is meant to modernize the ledgers and records that underpin all fund transactions by moving them on-chain.

BNY expects the shift of transfer agency work to blockchain to create a single ownership record. By consolidating ledgers previously maintained separately by multiple intermediaries, the bank aims to cut costs tied to reconciliation and settlement.

The bank will continue operating its existing systems in parallel. Emily Portney, BNY's global head of asset servicing, said the company fully recognizes that funds worth trillions of dollars will remain on traditional financial networks.

Wall Street banks have been steadily expanding their use of blockchain. JPMorgan, Citigroup and Bank of America plan to build tokenized deposit networks by the first half of next year to help prevent deposit outflows as the stablecoin industry grows.