State Street appoints new digital assets leader

State Street has appointed Vanessa Fernandes to head its Digital Asset Solutions team. She spent the last two years at BNY Mellon, but most of her career at the Itau Unibanco group, latterly as CEO of Itau Digital Assets in the United States.

While at Itau, she was responsible for several digital assets innovations over a short period. She will report to Donna Milrod, State Street’s chief product officer, who previously oversaw digital assets.

“We continue to focus on developing, leading, and executing on our digital strategy, which, over time, will impact nearly every facet of our company and transform our industry,” said Milrod. “To help us achieve our aspirations, I am pleased to welcome Vanessa to the team and look forward to seeing her build on the foundation we have established with her expertise with digital products, technology and operations.”

Earlier this year there were reports of layoffs in the digital asset team as it was folded into the traditional custody offering to provide a combined experience.

It recently partnered with Taurus for digital asset custody and tokenization technology after splitting with its previous custody tech provider, Copper, 18 months ago.

U.S. bank digital asset custody to take off?

Like many U.S. banks, State Street hasn’t had a smooth ride in digital assets, with the SEC’s SAB 121 imposing unmanageable burdens on bank custodians. As a result, no banks provided crypto custody for the Bitcoin and Ether ETFs issued in the U.S. this year.

However, that’s all changed now, with the SEC recently allowing BNY Mellon to provide custody for ETPs without needing to record the assets held in custody on its balance sheet. However, it has to consult the regulator on a case-by-case basis.

Hence, the State Street appointment is timely, as the space is likely to accelerate now.

State Street’s announcement still referenced digital asset custody as ‘subject to regulatory approval’. It said it wants to enhance its current digital asset fund administration and accounting offerings with custody.

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