Digital Assets and CCP Interoperability Take Centre Stage at TNF

Post-trade is at an inflection point as digital assets gain forward momentum and sweeping EU regulations intensify competition among the region’s Central Counterparty Clearing Houses (CCPs). During The Network Forum’s (TNF) Annual Meeting in Paris on June 8-10, experts from SIX discussed how the organization is positioning itself to deal with the changes.

Digital Assets and CCP Interoperability Take Centre Stage at TNF
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Digital Assets move into the Mainstream

Appetite for digital assets is growing exponentially, a trend that shows no sign of reversing course. 

What is presently a $17 billion tokenized asset market is projected to reach anywhere between $5.5 trillion and $8.2 trillion by 2030, according to Citi. [1]  By facilitating intraday borrowing, lending and financing, alongside instantaneous settlements and better transparency, tokenization could enable banks and other financial institutions to unlock additional revenues.  [2]  

According to The Value Exchange, mobilization of previously trapped collateral through tokenization could help tier one financial institutions earn $346 million in extra interest income. [3]

Nerin Demir, Head Repo

The real promise of digital assets is not solely delivering efficiencies through cheaper settlements, but supporting better balance sheet optimization,

said Marco Kessler, Head of Product and Business Development for Digital Assets, SIX, speaking at TNF.

Digital assets, however, are not going to replace traditional assets anytime soon. 

The convergence of traditional and digital assets is happening, and they will continue to co-exist for some time, as they each have different advantages and disadvantages. The decision to bring assets on-chain must be something driven by pure economics, not technology ideology. Digital assets have a lot of advantages, particularly around programmability and automated processing. However, it will take time for those benefits to materialize across the layers of the financial system, hence we need to adjust for the co-existence of digital and traditional assets

commented Kessler.

As more clients pile into digital assets, post-trade providers are having to develop new solutions.  

Our objective at SIX is to help shift capital markets from a fragmented, sequential workflow into an integrated and more programmable workflow,

continued Kessler.

Rather than replacing existing infrastructure altogether, a hybrid model is emerging bridging traditional and digital assets within trusted, regulated frameworks.  

Following FINMA approval, SIX Digital Exchange was recently incorporated into the broader Securities Services unit at SIX, allowing it to provide clients with a single gateway to access both digital and traditional assets, also known as ‘one plug, two worlds’.   

This means SIX can provide digital asset capabilities, such as tokenization, collateral mobility, crypto-custody, and Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT)-based asset servicing across the full spectrum of assets overseen by SIX. 

We want to provide our clients with safe, seamless access to digital assets, alongside their traditional assets. Already, we are seeing growing demand for digital asset services, especially here in Switzerland from the larger banks. A clear and effective Swiss regulatory framework has been instrumental in enabling SIX to provide the market infrastructure that serves as the digital assets’ entry point for its members,

highlighted Kessler.

EU Regulators look to accelerate CCP competition

Eager to increase cross-border investing, experts at TNF said the EU is doubling down on the Market Integration and Supervision Package (MISP), a critical component of the wider competition and integration agenda under the Savings and Investments Union (SIU).

Along with expanding the European Securities and Markets Authority’s (ESMA) supervisory role over CCPs, MISP is also pushing for a less byzantine CCP framework. 

Nerin Demir, Head Repo

Europe wants more integrated, competitive capital markets. Today’s clearing landscape is still fragmented, with a mix of silo models, preferred clearing, and interoperability. What the MISP’s intention is, is to remove frictions—both regulatory and operational—and reinforce open access between trading venues and CCPs,

said Michael Gort, Head of Clearing, SIX.

Although some EU policymakers would like to see further FMI consolidation, MISP, at the very, least, is going to increase demand for scalable pan-European CCPs that prioritize interoperability.

Interoperability is proven. It has been working safely and efficiently in Europe for almost two decades. Economically, it is attractive, as it reduces costs through netting, lowers collateral requirements, and enables competition. The main constraint is not technology or risk but incentives. Some vertically integrated models still have limited incentive to open up. They prefer to limit access to their inhouse CCP, and by protecting that clearing monopoly, they are able to extract a higher margin, leading to higher user costs. That is why the regulatory direction—particularly under SIU—is becoming more prevalent and maybe becoming necessary,

said Gort.

In December 2025, SIX announced it would consolidate its two CCPs – SIX x-Clear in Switzerland and Spain’s BME Clearing – into a combined entity, SIX Clearing, based in Madrid, with branches in Zurich and Oslo. The merger is due to be completed in 2027.  

This single CCP will bring together SIX x-Clear’s interoperable pan-European cash equity model with BME Clearing’s multi-asset strengths, creating an international, scalable, open and competitive alternative for clearing across numerous asset classes in Europe. It will also put SIX in a strong position to diversify into new asset classes in the future. 

By reducing the number of CCPs which clients are connected to, we can deliver additional value add through cost optimization and lower fees, which is aligned with what regulators are trying to do through MISP,

commented Gort.

As digital assets become more popular and EU regulators nudge the industry closer towards interoperability, SIX, owing to its deep pool of digital asset expertise and interoperable CCP model, is better placed than most to support its clients.

[1] Citi – June 1, 2026 – Tokenization 2030: Wall Street on Chain

[2] The Value Exchange – Making the case for tokenized collateral

[3] The Value Exchange – Making the case for tokenized collateral