Schroders Investment Management has called on market participants to prepare for a new investor reality shaped by tokenisation, as expectations around 24/7 access, speed and transparency continue to evolve.
Speaking during the Beyond Performance: personalisation, scale and the new investor reality panel at ALFI Global Asset Management Conference 2026, Vanessa Grueneklee, global head of fund clients at Schroders Investment Management Europe, pointed to the rapid pace of change driven by the increasing digitalisation of the current investor ecosystem.
“With a wallet, you can hold a lot of different products… the technology is there, and so is the implementation, but it’s come across faster than other industry evolutions we’ve seen in the past. We should all be prepared so we can move quickly,” she said.
Grueneklee noted that tokenisation aligns closely with emerging investor demands, including faster time to market, increased transparency and 24/7 accessibility, positioning it as an infrastructure shift rather than an innovation.
While complete institutional adoption will take more time, Grueneklee highlighted that momentum is building regardless.
“It will take longer for some of the institutional investors we are currently talking to, but this is something we all have to look at, work on and start now,” she added.
The panel signalled a growing recognition among asset managers that tokenisation is moving into an execution phase, requiring operational readiness, and warning against passive observation of the technology.
