Citi Securities Services Evolution 2025

Securities Services Evolution 2025 | 13 Shifting narrative – from digital assets to digital services “In five years, people won’t talk about digital assets – customers will instead be demanding the services that digital can enable.” Marco Kessler, Business Head Digital Assets, SDX After over a decade, the post-trade industry’s conversation hasmoved fromDLT-based “disruption” to a pragmatic embrace of digitalization that extends well beyond any single technology. Our FMI interviews this year consistently described their client conversations as wide-ranging, business focused discussions that drawon blockchain, GenAI and other technologies to provide new, seamless and low-friction operatingmodels. Gone are the days of innovation teams exploring how andwhere to insert a newblockchain platform into existing trade flows. Instead, discussions today are led by business heads (i.e. CEOs andHeads of Trading) who are looking to combine a host of technologies in order to realise immediate P&L benefits. These managers are looking for tangible benefits in asset mobility, settlement efficiency and liquiditywith little considerationof theunderlyingtechnologiestobeused. The goal is refinement and optimization, not replacement as firms look to restructure collateral management, private banking, wealth management and other high-growth areas – all with immediate, P&L impact in mind. “What has changed is that today it is the business people coming to talk digital – not the innovation people. It’s the P&L that talks.” Marco Kessler, Business Head Digital Assets, SDX Re-engineering the foundations – platform change is the new normal “Most CSD infrastructures go back to the 70s, which means no flexibility, lots of work arounds and more complexity. This can’t scale.” Alessio Mottola, Chief Executive Officer, Euronext Securities Milan Resilience, competition, growth, digital services – how do FMIs expect to deliver on all of these when the core foundations of our industry are changing more fundamentally than ever? Based on research 6 from the ValueExchange, FMI platforms supporting 40% of the world’s capital are undergoing significant transformation programs in 2025, including many of the world’s largest equities markets (Figure 2). The motivation? To deliver the benefits of reduced risk, real-time processing and digital asset compatibility, all within future-ready infrastructures. Platforms from the 1970s simply cannot keep pace. The question is how can FMI’s best realize significant platform changes in a way that minimizes risk and maximizes benefits for participants. Whilst Canada’s CSD completed its platform transition in 2025 by taking a “big bang” single phase approach, other FMIs such as DTCC, B3 and the UK CSD are taking a multi-year phased approach instead. Others are opting for continuous update cycles indefinitely, reducing the risk and costs of transition whilst laying the foundation for digital asset compatibility and positioning the platform for future demands. Phased or even continuous transitions look set to be the new norm.