BNY and Payward discuss broad financial infrastructure pact

BNY is in talks with Kraken parent Payward about a partnership spanning digital assets and financial-market services, according to CoinDesk’s report. The discussions matter because they could connect a large institutional bank’s services with Payward’s business-to-business platform, but the companies have not agreed to a deal.

What services could the two companies connect?

The talks could cover crypto products, custody, wealth management, trading, payments and financial infrastructure, two people familiar with the matter told CoinDesk. Those are possible areas of cooperation, not a confirmed list of services that would launch.

Payward Services is the platform Payward uses to offer services to banks, exchanges and asset managers. BNY, formerly Bank of New York Mellon, provides custody, asset servicing, clearing and wealth management to institutional clients. Put simply, Payward could provide a route into digital-asset services while BNY brings established institutional services; the reported discussions do not specify how those parts would be joined or which clients would use them.

That distinction matters because the talks cover several business lines, rather than one defined crypto product. CoinDesk reported that elements could resemble the infrastructure component of Payward’s recent agreement with Nasdaq. The report did not say that the BNY talks include Nasdaq’s tokenized-equity work or any specific technical design.

How would a partnership fit Payward’s platform?

Payward operates Kraken and businesses spanning spot crypto, derivatives, tokenized equities, custody, staking, payments and traditional securities, according to CoinDesk. Its Services platform makes some of that infrastructure available to other financial firms. A partnership could therefore place services from both companies alongside one another, though the reporting does not confirm a customer flow, settlement process or product launch.

The recent Nasdaq agreement offers a comparison, not a blueprint. Nasdaq and Payward are working on infrastructure for Nasdaq Equity Tokens, and Payward is to adopt Nasdaq market-surveillance technology across several venues. One person familiar with the BNY discussions said parts could resemble that agreement’s infrastructure component. The source did not say the BNY proposal would copy its terms or scope.

Have BNY and Payward agreed to proceed?

No. CoinDesk reported that the discussions are ongoing, there is no guarantee of an agreement, and both companies declined to comment. The report did not give a timetable, financial terms or a proposed launch date.

For now, the confirmed development is the talks themselves. The next concrete signal would be an announcement from either company defining the services, the institutions that would use them and how the arrangement would work.

References

• CoinDesk’s report — coindesk.com