Northern Trust has signalled its institutional pivot toward collaborative innovation at Money 2020 USA, emphasising full-spectrum asset servicing and strategic partnerships, by Evy Williams in Las Vegas.
Speaking at the Las Vegas conference, Justin Chapman, Group Head of Strategic Partnerships, Digital Assets and Financial Markets unveiled a bold shift in the firm’s institutional strategy, one that prioritises collaboration over experimentation, aiming to redefine asset servicing.
“Our focus now is to ensure we can service any type of asset in any market,” Chapman said. “Proofs of concept don’t move the industry forward, collaboration does.”
Chapman’s remarks reflect Northern Trust’s broader transformation, as the firm continues to integrate digital asset capabilities with its legacy infrastructure.
With partnerships as the catalyst and blockchain integration as the next technical evolution, institutions are moving from experimentation to building real infrastructure.
On stage, senior executives from Northern Trust, OKX, Standard Chartered and Franklin Templeton agreed that the future of digital assets will be built through collaboration and not competition (as was previously the case).
Moderated by Kash Razzaghi, Chief Marketing Officer at Circle, the panel explored how partnerships between traditional finance and crypto-native players are accelerating blockchain’s integration into institutional infrastructure.
“In order for digital assets to thrive, you need all market participants to join hands and drive the industry forward,” said Razzaghi.
That convergence is already underway. Earlier this year, OKX launched a world-leading collateral mirroring programme with Standard Chartered, supported by Franklin Templeton.
Jerry Zhang, Global Co-Head of FI Convergence at Standard Chartered, added that partnerships are critical to competitiveness.
“Ten years ago, our CEO made the bold statement that half of our future income could come from areas where we were doing nothing at the time,” he said. “Partnerships aren’t optional, they’re essential.”
Hong Fang, President of OKX, said the exchange’s institutional partnerships demonstrate how interoperability and innovation now go hand-in-hand.
“Interoperability and innovation together are critical to how we build,” she said.
The next phase of digital asset adoption isn’t about speculative trading or crypto exposure, it’s about integrating blockchain into the core financial market stack.
Partnerships between banks, asset managers and exchanges are turning blockchain from an experiment into the infrastructure layer of modern finance.
Northern Trust’s Justin Chapman has featured in an exclusive interview with Capital Pioneer, find here: Northern Trust is going beyond efficiency – Capital Pioneer.
