BNY is moving transfer agent operations that manage fund ownership records and investor transactions to a blockchain-based platform. A recent Cointelegraph report said BNY will move fund ownership records on-chain to expand the conversion of core financial infrastructure to digital assets.

Transfer agents manage official ownership records for investment fund units. They process investor transactions and handle issuance and redemption of fund units. They update ownership records and support communication between funds and investors. Until now, such information has been stored across multiple systems used by asset managers, custodians and other market participants, often requiring reconciliation.

BNY plans to run the new platform alongside existing transfer agent operations. It aims to place transfer agent records on a blockchain to create a single record system that market participants jointly reference, and to reduce reliance on separate databases and manual reconciliation.

Early users include Edinburgh-based Scottish asset manager Baillie Gifford. Baillie Gifford plans to use the platform for the first fully native tokenised fund under UK regulation. BlackRock and BNY Dreyfus money market fund and cash management businesses also plan to use the service for tokenised funds in the future.