BNY Mellon is launching a blockchain-based transfer agency to move fund ownership records on-chain, signaling a major shift toward blockchain-enabled financial infrastructure.

The platform aims to reduce reliance on multiple databases and minimize reconciliation by providing a single on-chain source of truth for ownership records.

BNY’s chief product and innovation officer says the new transfer agency will modernize fund books and records by bringing them on-chain.

Industry-wide movement sees major banks like JPMorgan, Citi, and Bank of America pursuing shared tokenized deposit networks and blockchain-backed infrastructure to support tokenized funds and manage stablecoin risks.

BNY emphasizes a cautious, phased rollout, noting traditional rails and blockchain systems will coexist as institutions evaluate security, regulation, and demand.

The move reflects a broader Wall Street trend toward tokenization to streamline issuance, transfer, and settlement without overhauling existing investment structures.

The article situates BNY’s move within a wider industry pattern of building blockchain infrastructure for tokenized funds, with traditional and new systems coexisting for years to come.

BNY Mellon’s transfer agency services currently cover about $8.6 trillion across 7.6 million accounts, while the bank oversees over $59 trillion in assets under custody and administration.

The initiative targets the roughly $8.6 trillion in assets serviced by the transfer agency across about 7.6 million investor accounts, and will run alongside traditional operations.

BNY’s transfer agency will operate in parallel with its existing operations during the transition.

BNY aims to modernize fund books and records on-chain while acknowledging that traditional systems will coexist for years due to cyber and smart-contract risks.

While blockchain can reduce reconciliation work, the bank warns against assuming traditional rails will disappear amid cyber risks like smart-contract bugs and cross-network bridges.