BNY Mellon Bets on Blockchain for 24/7, Immutable Financial Infrastructure
BNY mellon โis actively pursuingโฃ blockchain technology to revolutionize its operations, envisioning a futureโ of continuous, always-on financial recordkeeping. According to BNY Mellon’s Head of Digital Asset and Data Solutions,Caroline Weinberg,theโ current financial โsystem operates onโฃ a fundamentally different model – oneโข that “goes โขto bed at night” with batch processing – while blockchainโ offers the potential for 24/7โค operation.
As a majorโ asset management bankโ responsibleโ for the daily custody of trillions of โdollars in payments and securities, BNY Mellon sees significant โขbenefits in applying blockchain to its core functions. Weinberg โคhighlighted the bank’s role as the largest collateral manager and a significant player in security lending,suggesting blockchain could deliver “faster,better,moreโค efficient systems” for clients demanding โquicker transaction speeds.
The foundation of this transformation lies in distributedโค ledger technology (DLT),โ which โallows for secure and synchronized recording of โdigital assetโฃ transfers across a network without a central authority. โNewโค transactions are added immutablyโค and areโฃ visible to all participants in near real-time.โข Weinberg emphasized that DLTโ is “theโค core of โwhatโ we’re talking about,” with an “always-on programmable blockchain” serving โฃas the central repository for data and transactions.
BNY โฃMellon is exploring specific applications of DLT, including the issuanceโค of stablecoins – a move โฃalready being adopted by some banks – and โthe “tokenization” of assets. Tokenization involves creating unique digital representationsโ of a bank’s holdings on the blockchain,essentially a modernized โคformโ of data input.
Weinberg, who โคstudiedโ applied mathโ at Harvard โUniversity and took a cryptography course, noted the evolution of blockchainโ from a niche field to a mainstream topic, largely driven byโ the riseโค of cryptocurrency. She clarifiedโ thatโ holding cryptocurrency โคisn’tโ about possessingโข the digitalโ currency itself, but rather storing the digital keys that unlock access to it.
BNY โฃMellon is demonstrating its commitment โฃto this technology with concrete steps.In July 2025, the bank took over custody of Ripple‘s stablecoin reserves andโ recently โreported significant growth โคin its adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) โinitiatives.
Looking ahead,โค Weinberg anticipates a powerful synergy between AI and blockchain, particularly through smart contracts. She predictsโฃ that within five years, AI will enable “programmable optimizations, โขcustomizations and the ability to really drive new use cases” within the โฃblockchain framework, โleadingโ to a more dynamicโฃ and innovative financial landscape.