Berner Kantonalbank (BEKB) is joining SIX Digital Exchange (SDX), the first fully regulated financial markets infrastructure (FMI) digital asset exchange. Its first transaction will be the issuance of daura participation certificates.
daura’s participation certificates will be available in the banking system through BEKB, before the shares are registered on the SDX credit default swap.
Together, the three companies aim to establish a private market ecosystem for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), covering the issuance, trading and custody of tokensied shares.
BEKB will benefit from daura’s real-time digital share registry and digital annual meetings, along with SDX’s digital FMI to issue regulated and intermediated digital assets. These tools will allow for regulated securities account custody and improved transferability processes for investors.
By digitally issuing shares, as uncertificated securities or distributed ledger technology -securities, companies will be able to make them available for regulated bank custody.
David Newns, head of SDX, says: “SDX is excited to welcome BEKB as a new member on our central securities depository (CSD). Both BEKB and daura are pioneers in the digital asset space and together we are building an ecosystem for SMEs.
“That ecosystem will not only bring together those enterprises with investors looking to make private investments but will also bridge the gap between the world of tokenised private equity and the traditional banking system through SDX members’ ability to take into custody tokenised private shares and have them placed in the SDX’s CSD as bankable assets.”
Peter Schnürer, CEO of daura, adds: “With this partnership, we enable Swiss SMEs to connect their share register directly to the Swiss financial infrastructure. This allows shares to be booked directly into investors' accounts with custodians and traded at the push of a button on a marketplace. With SDX and BEKB, we have two partners who understand the requirements of Swiss SMEs and can implement them using innovative technology.”
