Edinburgh-based investment giant Abrdn has joined the governing council of distributed ledger technology (DLT) firm Hedera, becoming the first buy-side finance and asset management company on the council.
Abrdn said the group already includes a number of leading global firms including banks, law firms, technology and communications companies.
Hedera said Abrdn is currently examining future prospects for the tokenization of investment funds, using Hedera, “with the aim of listing these on a digital exchange.”
Abrdn said: “This is a further step in our digital assets strategy, having taken a stake in Archax, the UK’s first regulated digital securities exchange in August.
“We believe that the technology being developed in this sphere has the potential to revolutionise the investment landscape.
“Ultimately, this could see the majority of ‘traditional’ investments brought onto blockchains, as part of a wider digitisation of the investment process that includes digital exchanges and the tokenisation of assets.
“In particular, DLT offers the potential to transform the structural inefficiencies that exist in the fund management industry.
“In our view, Hedera is well placed to be the technology of choice for this shift due to its strong governance, operational efficiency, and the environmental sustainability of its unique hashgraph data structure.”
The Hedera network calls itself the “most innovative, sustainable, enterprise-grade public ledger for the decentralized economy.”
Hedera said the platform is governed by a diverse council of organizations, including Abrdn, Avery Dennison, Boeing, Chainlink Labs, Dentons, Deutsche Telekom, DLA Piper, EDF (Électricité de France), eftpos, FIS (WorldPay), Google, IBM, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), LG Electronics, Magalu, Nomura Holdings, ServiceNow, Shinhan Bank, Standard Bank Group, Swirlds, Tata Communications, Ubisoft, University College London (UCL), Wipro, and Zain Group.
Abrdn senior investment manager Duncan Moir said: “Becoming the first asset manager to be accepted on to the Hedera Governing Council further strengthens Abrdn’s position as a leader in the development of the digital asset ecosystem.
“We chose to join a number of leading global organisations on the Hedera Governing Council because Hedera’s emphasis on strong governance, innovation, and sustainability aligns closely with our values.
“With rapid speed and Asynchronous Byzantine Fault Tolerance (ABFT) security, Hedera offers a highly promising DLT solution for the fund management industry and we look forward to joining them on their journey.”
Bill Miller, co-chair of the Membership Committee for the Hedera Governing Council, commented: “The client-first mission at Abrdn aligns with Hedera’s goal of bridging the resources of enterprises with the innovative capabilities of Web3, enabling users to benefit from a DLT infrastructure that maximises efficiency.
“As Abrdn leads the investment industry’s move into tokenised assets, the Hedera network provides them with the underlying technology to overcome barriers and offer an increasingly sophisticated experience to their clients, who pay for the layers of services that contribute to managing their assets.”
Hedera added: “Abrdn believes that distributed ledger technology (DLT) has the potential to transform structural inefficiencies that exist in the fund management industry.
“It sees Hedera as the technology of choice for this shift due to its interest in strong governance, operational efficiency, and the environmental sustainability of Hedera’s best-in-class energy efficiency.
“Abrdn is currently examining future prospects for the tokenization of investment funds, using Hedera, with the aim of listing these on a digital exchange.
“Hedera’s network is capable of cutting through management work and making tokenized money management faster and more cost-efficient, while preserving its security and sustainability.
“Abrdn also sees scope to work with service providers to use Hedera for their other DLT-based services, allowing a fully onchain experience for fund investing.”
On August 9, Abrdn published first-half results showing its assets under management and administration (AUMA) fell £34 billion to £508 billion in the first half of 2022 amid the global stock market rout.