Parfois cantonné à un rôle technique peu visible, le dépositaire-conservateur s’impose pourtant comme l’un des piliers structurants de la chaîne de valeur des marchés financiers. 

La réforme T + 1 illustre parfaitement cette convergence. Cette dernière réduit les délais du cycle de règlement-livraison (date de transaction plus un jour ouvré). En mai 2024, les Etats-Unis, le Canada, le Mexique et l’Argentine et certains pays asiatiques sont passés à T + 1, tandis que l’Union européenne et le Royaume-Uni se sont fixé des échéances pour adopter ce standard devenu mondial. En Europe, les acteurs engageront la phase de test en 2026 avant une mise en œuvre totale en octobre 2027. Du point de vue du dépositaire, le chantier porte notamment sur la valorisation des fonds. « Les sociétés de gestion nous consultent régulièrement pour comprendre comment, et dans quelle mesure, elles peuvent accélérer leurs processus », relate Corinne Socha-Michel, global head of client portfolio compliance à CACEIS. Ces échanges ont d’ailleurs donné lieu à des discussions avec l’Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF) sur les principes de validation des valeurs liquidatives (VL). « Le régulateur a précisé que les modalités techniques de validation de la VL ne relèvent pas directement de la réglementation et qu’une société de gestion peut s’accorder avec son prestataire sur des mécanismes de validation implicite ou automatisée, explique Corinne Socha-Michel. Ces clarifications sécurisent les pratiques tout en permettant une plus grande fluidité opérationnelle. »

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Sorin Jitaru
Digital Assets expert

The highly regulated finance industry takes a prudential approach to investment and technological innovation, and is now facing its next big transformation. Asset tokenisation, or converting real-world assets to digital tokens held on a blockchain, could revolutionise the hedge fund industry.

For hedge fund managers, institutional investors, and distributors, this new technology could democratise access to the sector and enhance liquidity across long/short equity, global macro, and fixed income arbitrage strategies. The adoption of tokenisation technology could strengthen Europe’s position in terms of financial innovation and enable more investors to benefit from hedge fund assets within their investment portfolios.

Tokenisation’s potential is greater than mere technological innovation. By combining traditional hedge fund structures with blockchain technology, the investment industry could meet longstanding challenges related to investor access, operational efficiency, and portfolio liquidity.

Democratising hedge fund access through fractional ownership

Hedge funds have historically been the preserve of large institutional investors and ultra-high-net-worth individuals due to high minimum investments and regulatory barriers. Tokenisation fundamentally challenges this exclusivity using several key mechanisms.

Firstly, fractional ownership converts fund shares into digital tokens, allowing investors to purchase fractions of units in previously inaccessible strategies. It is exactly the same approach as used in traditional money market funds.

There are also the streamlined administrative processes that could see lower costs associated with serving a broader investor base. And finally for hedge fund managers, this technology enables targeted outreach to a growing segment of younger digitally-native investors who increasingly expect seamless digital experiences. 
Tokenisation’s benefits extend beyond accessibility as by broadening the investor base, hedge funds could also develop more stable capital bases while offering sophisticated strategies and investment diversification opportunities to a wider range of investors, including previously excluded retail investors …

Read the full article on The Digital Assets Edge website

Scott Foster
Head fo Digital &
Governance Solutions
CACEIS UK

The UK pensions sector is undergoing a significant transformation, driven by a combination of regulatory ambition and economic growth agenda. With the government's recent "Workplace Pensions: A Roadmap" setting out a comprehensive reform agenda, and new legislation making its way through Parliament, pension professionals face both unprecedented challenges and opportunities. Here we seek to understand the key developments set to reshape the UK pensions landscape, from scheme consolidation and investment reform to the emergence of new pension models that promise to deliver better outcomes for members while supporting broader economic growth.

Continued Consolidation: Building Scale for Better Outcomes

The government's analysis (Pensions Investment Review: Final Report from May 2025) of the UK's pensions market reveals a stark picture of fragmentation, with 5,000 DB schemes holding around £1.4 trillion in assets and hundreds of DC schemes with fewer than 100 members.
This sub-scale operation has tangible consequences for savers, including costly governance requirements and limited economies of scale in asset diversification, which are putting pressure on the value for money proposition of smaller schemes.

The government's solution, articulated in the Pension Schemes Bill, is clear: create "a smaller number of bigger, better governed, better value pension providers". The evidence from both the UK and internationally from markets such as Australia supports this direction. In the DC trust market, consolidation into Master Trusts has already driven significant acceleration in assets under management, permitting higher efficiency through scale. The push for consolidation also presents an opportunity to address the long-standing difficulty in comparing pension fund performance – a challenge in a market where thousands of funds operate with different objectives and approaches to benchmarking ...

Read the full article on The Pensions Management Institute (PMI) website (page 42)