Today it was announced that US Bancorp, America’s fifth largest, has invested in Ownera, the creator of FINP2P that aims to connect digital asset tokenization platforms to wealth managers and exchanges. While the investment amount was not revealed, corporate registry filings show fresh funds of $3 million earlier this month.
This is a Series A extension following an initial closing of $20 million in September last year, including JP Morgan and LRC Group, the real estate asset manager.
Numerous tokenization platforms are emerging from the likes of Societe Generale, Goldman Sachs and HSBC, to name just a few. Without interoperability, asset managers and wealth managers would have to connect their software to each tokenization platform, which isn’t practical. It would also make it harder to sell assets post issuance.
FINP2P hopes to enable interoperability, distribution and liquidity by providing a routing system between these tokenization platforms and investors. Ironically the solution does not use blockchain.
“This investment will allow us to play an important role in shaping the future of capital markets, one where issuers and institutional investors have more real-time visibility into assets and can more efficiently transfer ownership and settle transactions,” said Jim Kelligrew, Vice Chair and Head of Corporate & Commercial Banking, U.S. Bank.
“Our goal is to provide our capital markets clients a more streamlined experience, helping them save time and money, all while experiencing unprecedented transparency.”
FINP2P is not the only player targeting the tokenization interoperability challenge. It’s a topic being explored by the likes of SWIFT. The Regulated Liability Network was conceived by Citi and aims to connect CBDCs, deposit tokens and digital assets. It’s involved in trials at the New York Federal Reserve with eight banks. Separately, Standard Chartered and LBBW recently invested in DekaBank’s SWIAT, which has similar goals.
