In the past few years, discussions about the integration of traditional finance and digital technology have never truly ceased.
Written by: Fei Xiaohao
In the past few years, discussions about the integration of traditional finance and digital technology have never truly ceased.
From the early blockchain concepts being proposed to financial institutions beginning to experiment with related technological applications, and subsequently the gradual introduction of digital tools in areas like funds, payments, and clearing, the entire industry has been waiting for a clearer signal: Is blockchain merely in the experimental stage, or will it truly enter the core of the global financial system?
If the past few years have involved financial institutions exploring and validating new technologies, then two recent changes are beginning to touch the two most important aspects of the financial system — how assets are recorded and how funds are circulated.
Such changes often do not trigger attention as quickly as market trends, nor do they appear in news headlines every day, but the implications behind them can far exceed short-term market fluctuations. As major global financial institutions begin adjusting their underlying system architectures, a deeper trend is emerging: financial infrastructure is entering a new upgrade cycle.
Global Custody Giants Begin Changing Asset Recording Methods
At the end of July 2026, the world’s leading financial custody institution BNY Mellon announced the introduction of its transfer agency business into a blockchain-based digital system.
For ordinary investors, "transfer agency" may be a relatively unfamiliar financial term, but in the fund industry, it plays a very important role. Simply put, the transfer agency is responsible for recording ownership relationships of fund shares, processing investor subscriptions and redemptions, and maintaining registration, settlement, and data management throughout the entire lifecycle of the fund.
In the traditional financial system, this set of systems is similar to the core ledger of the fund industry. It connects fund management companies, custodians, sales channels, and investors, making it a critical component of the asset management system.
BNY Mellon's upgrade does not completely overturn the existing system but adds new digital capabilities on top of the traditional architecture. In other words, the original financial infrastructure will continue to operate, while blockchain technology acts as a new data collaboration layer to improve information synchronization efficiency, reduce the cost of repeated data verification between institutions, and enhance the overall data consistency of the system.
According to publicly available information, this system covers an asset scale of approximately $8.6 trillion, involving a large number of investor accounts.
The importance of this figure lies not only in the massive scale of assets but also in the signal it releases: blockchain technology is entering one of the most core data management aspects of the global financial system.
In the past, market discussions around blockchain focused more on issuing new digital assets and creating new trading models. But now, the industry's focus is shifting to more fundamental questions — can the recording of traditional assets be done more efficiently? Can asset ownership and transaction information be managed more quickly and transparently through a new technological framework?
At the same time, some large investment institutions are also beginning to explore new financial product designs based on digital infrastructure, such as funds with higher-frequency updates and more transparent operational mechanisms. This indicates that the emphasis on blockchain applications is gradually shifting from “creating new asset classes” to “optimizing the existing financial system.”
BIS Explores New Models for Cross-Border Payments, Efficiency of Capital Flow Improves
Almost simultaneously, the Project Agorá promoted by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) also announced the results of its phased testing.
This project collaborates with multiple international banks and central bank institutions, aiming to explore a new cross-border payment and settlement model. The core idea is to utilize central bank funds in digital form and commercial bank deposits to allow for more efficient capital flow between different financial institutions.
For a long time, cross-border payments have faced multiple issues. Different countries possess different financial systems and regulatory environments, and the process of capital transfer involves participation from multiple institutions, requiring information confirmation and settlement through various stages, which often limits efficiency.
The digital settlement system aims to resolve these complexities by enabling collaboration between different financial institutions within a more unified information environment.
In relevant tests, participating institutions simulated various application scenarios, including corporate cross-border payments, inter-bank fund allocations, and financial institution settlements. Testing results showed that some processes could be completed in approximately 80 seconds in an experimental environment.
Of course, this does not mean that the global payment system will undergo a complete transformation immediately. The upgrade of financial infrastructure typically requires a long time and must consider technological stability, regulatory requirements, and coordination among different markets.
However, from a trend perspective, the significance of these tests is not merely to demonstrate an increase in transaction speed but to verify the potential for large-scale application of a new financial infrastructure model.
If more financial institutions adopt similar architectures in the future, the efficiency of global capital flow may welcome new opportunities for improvement.
Common Signals Released by Two Changes
If we observe the upgrading of BNY Mellon’s asset recording system and the BIS's exploration of the cross-border payment system together, a very obvious trend emerges: the financial industry is shifting from studying “what blockchain can do” to contemplating “how to integrate blockchain into the existing financial system.”
In the past few years, market attention to digital assets has often concentrated on price changes, new product issuances, and market hotspots. But from the perspective of financial development, what truly impacts the industry’s long-term landscape is not a single product or a particular market trend, but changes in the underlying infrastructure.
Asset registration methods are gradually becoming digitalized, data exchange between financial institutions is becoming more automated, and payment and settlement processes are evolving towards higher efficiency.
These changes may not immediately cause noticeable market disruptions, but once the infrastructure is upgraded, its impact often lasts for many years.
The internet era changed the way information is transmitted, while blockchain technology is attempting to modify the methods of recording and circulating value.
This is also why more and more traditional financial institutions are starting to focus on this area.
Web3 is Entering the Upgrade Stage of Financial Infrastructure
In the early stages, blockchain technology was often regarded as a disruptive new model for traditional finance.
However, from the practical directions of large institutions today, a more realistic development path is forming: blockchain is not simply replacing traditional finance but is gradually becoming part of the financial system.
Its value is shifting from creating new markets to optimizing existing systems.
For instance, how can asset records in different global regions be made more uniform? How can the costs of repetitive reviews and data synchronization between financial institutions be reduced? How can cross-border capital flow be made more efficient?
These questions have existed for many years and did not arise only after the emergence of blockchain. However, due to the complex historical architecture of the traditional financial system, optimizing these processes has always faced significant challenges.
The new digital infrastructure offers a different solution approach.
In the coming years, as technology continues to mature and regulatory systems gradually improve, more financial institutions may adopt similar solutions in various business stages.
However, this does not mean that the traditional financial system will be quickly replaced.
A more likely scenario is the long-term coexistence of the new and old systems, gradually merging in different business areas. Traditional finance will still play a role in maintaining stable operations, while new digital technologies will continuously improve efficiency and collaboration.
The Next Round of Changes in the Financial System May Be Occurring at the Bottom Level
As major global financial institutions begin redesigning asset recording methods and cross-border payment systems explore more efficient settlement models, these changes collectively indicate one thing: financial infrastructure is entering a new evolution stage.
In the future, what may truly deserve attention is not just the trending assets or short-term market fluctuations, but the underlying technological upgrades that are changing the logic of financial operation.
In the past few decades, the financial industry has gone through the development processes of electronicization and internetization, and the next phase is likely to be a deeper digital reconstruction.
As the global financial system begins to rethink its “ledger structure” and “capital channels,” a new era of more efficient and collaborative financial infrastructure is gradually approaching.
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