Blockchain settlement infrastructure provider Fnality said on Sept. 10 that it has appointed former Bank of England Deputy Governor Sir Jon Cunliffe as chair of its U.K. board, alongside two former European central bankers joining its Fnality Europe supervisory board. The appointments deepen the company’s ties to central banking as it scales a network of regulated payment systems that settle in central bank money.
Three central-bank veterans join
Cunliffe, a former Deputy Governor for Financial Stability at the Bank of England, brings three decades of experience in market infrastructure and payments oversight, having chaired the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures at the Bank for International Settlements and sat on the G20 Financial Stability Board’s steering committee. Jochen Metzger, a former Deutsche Bundesbank Director General for Payments and Settlement Systems, joins Fnality Europe’s new supervisory board and is expected to chair it, having helped lead development of the Eurosystem’s TARGET2, T2S and TIPS systems. Prof. Dr. Ron Berndsen, a former head of oversight at De Nederlandsche Bank, also joins the supervisory board and currently serves as a senior independent non-executive director of LCH Limited and LCH SA, according to the company’s announcement.
Scaling settlement in central-bank money
Fnality operates regulated, DLT-based wholesale payment systems that let market participants settle obligations using central bank money balances. It went live with its Sterling Fnality Payment System in 2023 under Bank of England regulation, and has set up Fnality Europe GmbH in Eschborn, Germany for a proposed Euro Fnality Payment System, plus Fnality Bank U.S. in Stamford, Connecticut to develop a U.S. dollar system.
What it means for tokenized markets
“Having spent their careers overseeing critical financial market infrastructure … Sir Jon and Jochen will be instrumental in helping us build out our global network,” said Michelle Neal, Fnality’s group CEO, adding that “regulated on-chain settlement services in central bank money balances … are a prerequisite for tokenised asset markets to scale for wholesale use.” Cunliffe said the U.K. is driving financial innovation and that “settlement in the safest assets available will be crucial to maintaining financial stability.” The move follows a broader institutional push to build tokenized market infrastructure, such as Broadridge’s launch of its DLX platform for tokenized markets.
