Tokenisation in Practice: What Swiss and European Institutions Are Building Today

Tokenisation in Europe has entered a different phase. The discussion has shifted from experimentation to controlled production design. For Swiss and European institutions, the question is no longer whether digital assets belong in the financial system, but how they integrate into regulated capital markets, treasury operations and custody frameworks.

Regulated Issuance Is Moving Forward

Across Europe, banks have begun issuing tokenised structured products within existing regulatory environments rather than confined innovation sandboxes. Tokenised bonds, structured notes and fund units are now being designed to mirror traditional instruments while benefiting from blockchain-based settlement and transparency.

Switzerland continues to play a strategic role in this evolution. Exchange-linked digital asset infrastructures have received supervisory approval to operate blockchain-based trading and settlement environments. This represents a structural milestone. It signals that tokenised securities are being embedded into recognised market architecture, not operating parallel to it.

For institutions such as BBVA, digital and blockchain solutions are no longer peripheral initiatives. They are being aligned with core product structuring and issuance capabilities. The focus is not disruption, but operational efficiency, capital optimisation and post-trade simplification.

Treasury Is the Real Testing Ground

The most consequential tokenisation work in Europe is happening inside treasury centres.

Large banking groups are assessing how tokenised assets can improve liquidity visibility, collateral mobility and cross-border optimisation. Real-time on-chain asset tracking introduces new possibilities for treasury forecasting models and internal funding flows. Tokenised collateral structures may reduce friction in intra-group funding and streamline settlement timelines.

The presence of treasury leadership from HSBC reflects this shift. Tokenisation is increasingly evaluated through the lens of balance sheet efficiency, liquidity management and capital allocation rather than retail crypto adoption. This is a materially different conversation from the digital asset debates of previous cycles.

If tokenisation proves capable of reducing operational layers in issuance and reconciliation while maintaining regulatory compliance, treasury adoption could accelerate rapidly.

Custody Architecture Determines Scale

Institutional tokenisation cannot scale without robust custody design.

Hardware-secured custody, multi-party governance workflows, segregation of duties and full audit traceability are now baseline requirements for regulated deployment. Security architecture has become the gatekeeper of institutional confidence.

Ledger’s institutional custody capabilities illustrate this evolution. Custody providers are no longer niche digital asset specialists. They are positioning themselves as infrastructure partners integrated into regulated financial stacks. This includes alignment with compliance teams, internal control functions and supervisory expectations.

The credibility of Swiss and European tokenisation efforts depends heavily on this security layer. Without institutional-grade custody, tokenised issuance remains structurally constrained.

Compliance Is Embedded, Not Added Later

Another critical shift is the embedding of compliance at the design stage.

AML monitoring, transaction screening and cross-border reporting requirements are now being integrated into token lifecycle management. Institutions are structuring digital assets in a way that allows regulators clear visibility into flows, ownership and transfer conditions.

For regulated platforms such as YouHodler, compliance architecture is not optional. It defines the boundaries within which tokenised services can operate. European regulatory dialogue is increasingly focused on scalability and supervisory oversight rather than fundamental permissibility.

In practical terms, tokenisation that cannot withstand audit and AML scrutiny at an institutional scale will remain confined to limited issuance volumes.

Interoperability Is the Structural Constraint

The next decisive phase in European tokenisation will not be defined by issuance numbers, but by integration quality.

Banks operating across multiple jurisdictions must reconcile on-chain data with legacy treasury systems, accounting frameworks and capital reporting dashboards. Middleware layers, API integration and data standardisation are becoming strategic priorities.

Institutions such as HSBC and BBVA operate within complex multinational reporting environments. Tokenised instruments must fit seamlessly into those structures. Ledger’s role as a bridge between secure custody and financial infrastructure highlights the importance of interoperability.

Issuing a token is technically straightforward. Integrating it into capital, liquidity and risk systems is significantly more complex.

What the Next Phase Will Determine

To explore how tokenisation is being implemented in practice across treasury, custody and capital markets, join leading banks, digital asset infrastructure providers and compliance specialists at the 24th NextGen Payments & RegTech Forum – Switzerland, taking place on 5 March 2026 at the Marriott Hotel in Zurich.

Hear directly from experts, including HSBC, BBVA, Ledger, YouHodler and senior fintech thought leaders as they examine on-chain settlement, institutional custody, collateral optimisation and regulatory integration in Europe.

Book now to enjoy a 10% discount before it expires. Contact us at info@qubevents.com to claim the discount.

Register and access the agenda: www.qubevents.com/nextgen-payments-regtech-zurich 

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By: Zinah Abdaki, CMO at QUBE Events