Mass adoption of digital assets through Standard Chartered’s ventures unit has informed the bank’s view that “digital assets is a permanent and important part of the future.”
That was a key observation from the bank’s head of digital assets portfolio and governance, speaking at Money 20/20 Asia on Tuesday (22 April).
During a panel debate at the conference in Bangkok, Danielle Szetho (pictured, left) explained that Standard Chartered has taken a direction that has been led by a different set of strategic indicators to many of its peers.
“We have taken a path that is differentiated from a number of other banks,” she said. “We have chosen to focus on crypto assets, and recently on stablecoins, because we have seen first-hand through our Ventures the level of adoption we are seeing.”
SC Ventures is the unit within Standard Chartered that focuses on innovation, investment in disruptive financial technology, and alternative business models.
From its work within this unit, Szetho said the bank arrived at a strategic view that is “that interesting happens when different markets collide.”
Another area of collision has been the differing regulatory approaches of global policymakers, which was highlighted by multiple stakeholders on day one of the conference.
Szetho accepted that this “has been very challenging as you move from market to market,” but said that discussions with bank peers and non-bank market stakeholders has fostered a global environment for dialogue which all regulated businesses can embrace.
“Each new risk type comes on the journey with us,” Szetho said.
“When we are building products and services…. we take the time to work with the stakeholders to upgrade all of the risk frameworks. We have a compliance team within the organisation now that is favoured to say yes rather than a straight no and that regulatory dialogue definitely helps.”
A major focus for the bank’s regulatory and compliance team in the coming months will be the implementation of the new Basel crypto standards, said Szetho, as these need to be implemented before the 1 January 2026 deadline (see details).
