ESMA, BitGo, SIX, ISDA and more

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Welcome to Global Custody Pro, read by custody professionals like you. I'm Brennan McDonald, Managing Editor. I write about the global custody industry, having spent over 12 years in financial services, including working at a global custody bank. An AI voice reads the audio version of this newsletter. Reply to this email with feedback or connect with us on LinkedIn.

Table of Contents

• 🌏 Global Custody News

  • ESMA Chair: T+1 Deadline Fixed, Act Now

• 🚀 Digital Asset News

  • BitGo Powers TAO ETP Custody on SIX

  • ISDA Backs Tokenised Collateral for Derivatives Ma …

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🌏 Global Custody News

ESMA Chair: T+1 Deadline Fixed, Act Now

European Securities and Markets Authority Chair Verena Ross delivered an unequivocal message to the post-trade industry: the EU's transition to T+1 settlement will proceed on schedule with no possibility of delay. Speaking at the ECSDA Conference in Brussels on 18 November 2025, Ross confirmed that all regulatory requirements would be finalised by early 2026, with ESMA having already published amendments to the settlement discipline technical standards in October.

Ross emphasised that CSDs will play a "pivotal" role in the transition, with their implementation decisions shaping how other market participants plan their own adjustments. She called on firms to view T+1 not as a compliance exercise but as a "strategic investment" in competitiveness, urging them to review end-to-end processes and explore automation opportunities. The ESMA Chair also highlighted the need for coordination with the UK and Switzerland, which are pursuing parallel transitions.

Looking beyond 2027, Ross advocated for making the EU's DLT Pilot Regime permanent, calling for "a full-fledged framework for the tokenisation of financial instruments." She noted that while uptake has been slow, projects including CSD Prague, Clearstream's D7 platform and Euroclear's D-FMI initiative demonstrate how distributed ledger technology could reshape post-trade infrastructure.

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🚀 Digital Asset News

BitGo Powers TAO ETP Custody on SIX

BitGo announced a partnership with Deutsche Digital Assets GmbH to provide institutional-grade custody and staking for the Safello Bittensor Staked TAO ETP (ISIN: DE000A4APQY4), which commenced trading on the SIX Swiss Exchange on 19 November 2025. The product was developed in collaboration with Safello.

BitGo Europe GmbH, operating under Germany's BaFin regulatory framework, serves as the appointed custodian, holding all underlying TAO in segregated cold storage. The arrangement provides institutional clients with multi-signature wallet technology and staking infrastructure. "The collaboration with Deutsche Digital Assets marks another important step in BitGo's mission to secure the digital asset economy," said Mike Belshe, CEO and Co-Founder of BitGo.

Maximilian Lautenschläger, CEO and Founder of Deutsche Digital Assets, said the ETP "marks an important step in connecting decentralised AI to traditional financial markets under a regulated, institutional-grade framework." The product enables investor exposure to Bittensor, a decentralised protocol designed as a global marketplace for machine intelligence.

ISDA Backs Tokenised Collateral for Derivatives Markets

ISDA has urged the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to support expanded use of tokenised collateral and payment stablecoins in derivatives markets, according to a 21 November letter responding to the regulator's request for input. The trade association, which represents over 1,000 member institutions from 78 countries, endorsed the GMAC Digital Asset Markets Subcommittee recommendation to expand non-cash collateral use through distributed ledger technology, focussing initially on GENIUS Act-compliant stablecoins and tokenised versions of already-eligible assets.

ISDA stated that tokenisation could substantially reduce counterparty, settlement, and market risk through near-instantaneous and atomic settlement, replacing the current T+1/T+2 timeframe. The association noted that instantaneous posting of tokenised collateral could eliminate current processes requiring cash posting followed by replacement with money market fund units or securities. ISDA has collaborated with other trade associations on DLT implementation guidance and recently introduced Digital Asset Definitions to support documentation of digital asset derivatives, whilst co-sponsoring a U.S. Tokenised Money Market Fund Working Group.

The letter requested CFTC guidance on multiple technical issues including haircut calculations for stablecoins and tokenised assets, segregation requirements under Regulation 1.44, and treatment of digital assets under eligible depository rules. ISDA recommended that for GENIUS Act-compliant stablecoins backed 100 per cent by high-quality liquid assets, haircuts should be calibrated to reserve composition and redemption characteristics rather than applied uniformly. The association emphasised the need for coordination between CFTC, SEC, Treasury, and U.S. Prudential Regulators to prevent market fragmentation and called for international harmonisation with ESMA and UK FCA on tokenised collateral standards. Mark New, ISDA's Co-Head of Digital Transformation, signed the submission.

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