SIX has launched a digital assets regulatory and tax service which aims to provide financial institutions with a single information source to help identify their exposure to digital assets.

The global financial data and market infrastructure provider says this comes amid growing demand from firms to gain a clearer picture of their digital asset regulatory obligations.

The tool will help firms monitor, flag, and process changes in existing regulatory and tax requirements that relate to their digital assets.

Roy Kirby, head of core products at SIX, says: “This tool couldn’t arrive at a more opportune time for financial institutions in Europe and farther afield. It will provide firms with an extremely detailed and reliable snapshot of their digital assets obligations across an incredibly vast array of crypto-based instruments.

“Critically, it will do so at a time when the regulatory landscape for digital assets is shifting at an unprecedented rate. More and more institutions across the globe are rallying to adopt digital assets in a safe and secure fashion, and comprehensive data tools like this will be essential in enabling them to do so.”

New platform marks industry-first use of AppChain financial infrastructure to support institutional decentralized finance (DeFi).

The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), the premier post-trade market infrastructure for the global financial services industry, today announced a digital collateral management platform. DTCC and industry leaders will demo the new platform in a live event, “The Great Collateral Experiment” on April 23, representing a diverse cross-section of financial market assets and participants. It’s the first industry demonstration developed on DTCC’s digital ecosystem that launched last October – DTCC Digital Launchpad.

Collateral is an essential risk mitigation tool that helps support overall financial stability. But as the markets grow more complex and cost pressures rise, the demand for high quality collateral increases. Blockchains present a significant opportunity to streamline the flow of collateral across siloed infrastructure, unlocking major capital and operational efficiencies.

The new AppChain-based approach demonstrates the power of tokenized collateral management to:

• ․Increase the mobility and velocity of collateral movement globally,

• ․Increase capital efficiencies and liquidity for all participants,

• ․Facilitate the convergence of traditional and digital assets, and

• ․Enable an open digital liquidity ecosystem for market participants to deploy digital applications that enhance collateral operations.

The collateral management platform is an application on the DTCC AppChain, built atop LF Decentralized Trust’s Besu blockchain. The DTCC AppChain offers greater control over privacy, security, and data and uses DTCC ComposerX. DTCC is giving our participants a robust digital financial infrastructure to help navigate the fragmented data landscape that spans traditional and digital networks. The platform leverages a scalable, industry-driven framework rooted in open architecture and common standards.

“Our goal is to highlight how we can enable real-world, institutional-grade digital collateral market infrastructure,” said Nadine Chakar, Global Head of DTCC Digital Assets. “This platform is unique in that we’ve created something that’s more open, flexible, dynamic, and comprehensive than any previous digital collateral initiative.”

“Our work does not stop today,” added Chakar. “We plan to continue building on this collateral model, engaging with the industry and our regulators to develop the standard for tokenized collateral across global jurisdictions, working with the buy-side to give them more direct market access, and laying out the regulatory and legal path to implementation.”

“Collateral mobility is the ‘killer app’ for institutional use of blockchain – we’ve pulled together a coalition of technologists and market participants to successfully showcase how the speed and openness of this technology can safely and reliably unlock liquidity in traditional markets at scale,” said Dan Doney, Chief Technology Officer of DTCC Digital Assets. “By using smart contracts to automate the full range of collateral operations, we enable complex trade execution across markets in real-time at any time, even in volatile conditions.”

Euroclear has onboarded the Hong Kong Monetary Authority’s (HKMA’s) Project Ensemble, which aims to foster and shape the tokenisation ecosystem in the region.

Launched in March 2024, the initiative brings together experts and industry participants to design, test, and implement a robust framework for tokenisation in Hong Kong.

Nelson Chow, executive director for financial infrastructure at the HKMA, comments: "Hong Kong’s position as an international financial centre is reinforced by its financial market infrastructure, which has established the city as a super-connector between the mainland and the rest of the world.

“Our long-standing partnership with Euroclear, spanning over 20 years, has significantly enhanced both our infrastructure and connectivity. We are excited to further advance this collaboration as we transition into the era of digitalisation and tokenisation."

As an Architecture Community member, Euroclear will contribute by developing a set of industry standards to support interoperability among central bank money, tokenised money, and tokenised assets.

Philippe Laurensy, CEO for APAC at Euroclear, adds: "By collaborating with key stakeholders in the Hong Kong tokenisation market, we are exploring new opportunities for innovation and market growth.

“This initiative will allow us to harness technology to develop solutions that benefit the marketplace by fostering a more interconnected financial ecosystem."

The way policies and practices for the preparation and conduct of general shareholder meetings are evolving could change essential elements of sound corporate governance, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)’s latest Shareholder Meetings and Corporate Governance report.

The review examined how several factors may be impacting shareholder rights, engagement and equitable treatment regardless of the format of a meeting, as set out in the G20/OECD Principles of Corporate Governance.

It covers 50 major economies, and includes case studies from the Netherlands, Singapore, South Africa, Türkiye and the United Kingdom.

One of the key points highlighted was that while virtual and hybrid shareholder meetings have become increasingly common, many companies still prefer meetings to be in-person. Temporary emergency frameworks set up during the pandemic are gradually coming to an end, and shareholders are being asked whether to extend reforms to allow companies scope for more remote participation, and if so, what would constitute a mandate for virtual meetings.

Meanwhile, some companies are choosing to move to virtual-only meetings due to activism over broader policy issues,and security concerns such as identify verification. More regulators are now issuing guidance for a coherent framework for shareholder meeting conduct, particularly regarding issues remote participation and voting, Q&A processes and information disclosure.

Another issue raised in the report is a lack of governance clarity over how shareholders can submit new resolutions during meetings. There has been a surge in shareholder resolutions, and the right for companies right to accept or reject these proposals for discussion is not always clear and may sometimes lead to costly legal action.

Elsewhere, the report made recommendations to support market initiatives aimed at ensuring shareholder meetings become more inclusive for retail and foreign investors, monitoring potential obstacles to voting.

Lastly, a significant number of investors are requesting greater transparency in how meeting minutes are recorded, with clear guidance required on a specified minimum content of meeting minutes as well as clarity over disclosure of webcasts, transcripts and audio/visual recordings.

SIX has launched a new data offering to enhance coverage, reliability and pricing flexibility for the global fixed income markets.

The solution, called SIX Fixed Income Data, is designed to provide banks, asset managers, wealth managers and hedge funds globally with reliable fixed income data, based off an array of information sourced from global markets.

The provider has said that the offering will give clients access to data for 3.6 million US instruments across municipal, corporate and government debt, and structured finance, and will reduce reliance on inconsistent and error-prone sources to price securities, manage risk, and comply with regulations.

“Until recently, many market participants were constrained by offerings with inflexible commercial terms or forced to combine disparate data sources that lacked completeness and accuracy,” said Swati Bhatia, head of fixed income, financial information at SIX.

“By launching SIX Fixed Income Data, we are giving market participants the coverage, reliability, and pricing flexibility they need in the asset class that represents the largest segment of the global capital markets.”

SIX highlighted that the original issuance and lifestyle documentation of the offering is fully owned by the provider and will be available through its centralised platform.

Similarly, it has said that SIX’s API-driven infrastructure will tackle issues of long onboarding times and disruptions that arise from using alternative solutions, by streamlining the integration of data into clients’ workflows, combined with transparent pricing and scalable licensing.

In recent months, the expansion and launch of new data services has been a focus for the company. SIX Fixed Income Data’s announcement follows the Digital Assets Regulatory and Tax Service launched by the provider at the beginning of April 2025, designed to provide institutions with a single information source to help identify their exposure to digital assets and remain compliant with evolving regulations.