BNY Moves Fund Ownership Records Onchain in Major Step Toward Blockchain Finance

TL;DR: 

• BNY’s transfer agency division oversees $8.6 trillion in assets across 7.6 million investor accounts. 
• British asset manager Baillie Gifford, with $261 billion under management, is among the first users of the new digital infrastructure. 
• BNY administers more than $59 trillion in assets under custody and administration globally, according to institutional reports.

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BNY, the New York-based custodian banking institution, moves fund ownership records onchain through the launch of a blockchain technology-based version of its transfer agency business. The goal of this initiative is to modernize the accounting infrastructure that underpins every transaction in investment funds.

Transfer agents maintain official records of ownership of shares in investment funds. These entities manage the issuance and redemption of shares, update owner ledgers, and process investor orders. Traditionally, ownership information remains stored in a fragmented manner across multiple independent databases used by managers, custodians, and distributors, which requires periodic reconciliations between parties.

According to statements attributed to Carolyn Weinberg, chief product and innovation officer at BNY, adopting blockchain-based records modernizes the infrastructure supporting fund operations. Industry reports suggest that integrating into a shared data layer could drastically decrease accounting discrepancies and reduce settlement times.

Integration of Tokenization and Traditional Infrastructure

BNY’s transfer agency business covers approximately $8.6 trillion in assets across 7.6 million client accounts. Additionally, the group oversees more than $59 trillion in assets under global custody and administration as of the close of the second quarter of 2026. BNY will continue to operate its traditional transfer services in parallel with the new blockchain platform.

According to the firm’s report, maintaining conventional infrastructure alongside the new digital environment allows it to simultaneously serve clients with varying levels of technological maturity. Analysis from specialized firms suggests that this dual approach serves as an operational risk mitigation strategy during the industry transition process.

Edinburgh-based asset manager Baillie Gifford, with around $261 billion in assets under management, positioned itself as one of the early users of the service. The firm will use the platform to launch a fully regulated tokenized fund under UK regulations. Firms such as BlackRock and BNY Dreyfus’ cash management business are projected to use the infrastructure for upcoming tokenized financial products.

In this regard, Theo Golden, head of digital assets at Baillie Gifford, stated that blockchain technology provides a single, shared source of truth among market participants. The vision outlined by the manager indicates that this architecture could replace the need to verify information across separate databases.

The move aligns with BNY’s strategic expansion in digital assets, which includes regulatory progress in Europe under the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework. BNY has not publicly disclosed the specific blockchain network on which the transfer agency platform will operate.

The next milestone for the platform will be the transition into the operational phase of the tokenized funds announced by Baillie Gifford and the planned integrations with BlackRock’s money market vehicles.