Count megabank BNY Mellon among the incumbents staying the course in cryptocurrency technology despite the collapse of the FTX exchange and plunging digital asset values.
In prepared remarks on a on Jan. 13 call with analysts after giant custodian Pershing and its parent company released their fourth-quarter earnings, BNY Mellon CEO Robin Vince identified “real-time payments” and “the reimagining of custody and collateral and digital assets” as two longer-term growth initiatives showing promise.
Vince also praised Pershing for “two very exciting wins” announced in the fourth quarter, in the form of new custodial relationships with insurance firm State Farm and a fintech startup called Arta Finance. That incoming business contrasted with the reports last week that BNY will cut 1,500 jobs this year, or about 3% of its employee ranks. It’s not clear whether any of those roles will come from Pershing, and the company didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.
The megabank remains bullish on the tech underlying Bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrency, Vince said in his remarks. He noted that its U.S. digital asset custody platform launched in October and cited his comments in a recent op-ed in the Financial Times.
“This will continue to be a focus for us, not so much for crypto but really the broader opportunity that exists across digital assets and distributed ledger technology,” Vince said, according to a transcript by Insider Monkey Transcripts. “If anything, the recent events in the crypto market only further highlight the need for trusted, regulated providers in the digital asset space.”
To see the most interesting takeaways for financial advisors from Pershing and parent company BNY Mellon’s earnings in the fourth quarter, scroll down the slideshow. For coverage of the firms’ third-quarter earnings, click here. And to see where the companies stood halfway through 2022, follow this link.
Note: The results include BNY Mellon-owned Pershing, which is the largest part of the firm’s Market and Wealth Services segment, and those of the megabank’s Investment and Wealth Management unit.