The global investment company, which holds £508 billion in assets, will first move to make Hedera the technology of choice for investment fund tokenization

Edinburgh, Scotland - 6 October 2022 – Investment company abrdn has today joined the Hedera Governing Council as the first buyside finance and asset management company on the Council. abrdn believes that distributed ledger technology (DLT) has the potential to transform structural inefficiencies that exist in the fund management industry. It sees Hedera as the technology of choice for this shift due to its interest in strong governance, operational efficiency, and the environmental sustainability of Hedera’s best-in-class energy efficiency.

abrdn is currently examining future prospects for the tokenization of investment funds, using Hedera, with the aim of listing these on a digital exchange. Hedera’s network is capable of cutting through management work and making tokenized money management faster and more cost-efficient, while preserving its security and sustainability. abrdn also sees scope to work with service providers to use Hedera for their other DLT-based services, allowing a fully onchain experience for fund investing.

Duncan Moir, Senior Investment Manager at abrdn, said: “Becoming the first asset manager to be accepted on to the Hedera Governing Council further strengthens abrdn’s position as a leader in the development of the digital asset ecosystem. We chose to join a number of leading global organizations on the Hedera Governing Council, because Hedera’s emphasis on strong governance, innovation, and sustainability aligns closely with our values. With rapid speed and asynchronous Byzantine Fault Tolerance (ABFT) security, Hedera offers a highly promising DLT solution for the fund management industry and we look forward to joining them on their journey.”

abrdn, which has over 5,000 employees globally, will bring new insights on financial services governance to the Council. In contrast to other participating financial institution members, such as banks, asset management firms have fiduciary responsibilities which create a higher hurdle for governance. With the fund management industry’s specific structural inefficiencies, which are ripe for modernization through DLT, there are collaboration opportunities for abrdn to work with other Council members that provide services for the fund management industry, including banks, law firms and technology companies, to drive this transformation.

Bill Miller, co-chair of the Membership Committee for the Hedera Governing Council, said: “The client-first mission at abrdn aligns with Hedera’s goal of bridging the resources of enterprises with the innovative capabilities of Web3, enabling users to benefit from a DLT infrastructure that maximizes efficiency. As abrdn leads the investment industry move into tokenized assets, the Hedera network provides them with the underlying technology to overcome barriers and offers an increasingly sophisticated experience to their clients, who pay for the layers of services that contribute to managing their assets.”

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About abrdn plc

abrdn plc (ABDN LN Equity) is a global investment company with £508 billion in assets under management and administration and over 5,000 employees located globally that helps clients and customers plan, save and invest for their future. Enabling our clients to be better investors drives everything we do. Our business is structured around three vectors – Investments, Adviser and Personal – focused on their changing needs. Across markets globally, we build investment solutions to enable clients to create more opportunities for their futures. Our platform technology and tools help UK wealth managers and financial advisers create more opportunities for their clients and their businesses. Our personal wealth business offers a range of services to help individuals in the UK plan financially secure futures in a way that works for them.

About Hedera

The Hedera network is the most innovative, sustainable, enterprise-grade public ledger for the decentralized economy. The platform is governed by a globally diverse council of industry leading organizations, including abrdn, Avery Dennison, Boeing, Chainlink Labs, Dentons, Deutsche Telekom, DLA Piper, EDF (Électricité de France), eftpos, FIS (WorldPay), Google, IBM, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), LG Electronics, Magalu, Nomura Holdings, ServiceNow, Shinhan Bank, Standard Bank Group, Swirlds, Tata Communications, Ubisoft, University College London (UCL), Wipro, and Zain Group.

For more information, visit www.hedera.com, or follow us on Twitter at @hedera, Telegram at t.me/hederahashgraph, or Discord at www.hedera.com/discord. The Hedera whitepaper can be found at www.hedera.com/papers.

For Media Enquiries

Duncan Young
Interim Global Head of External Communications
abrdn
T +44 7920 868865
[email protected]

Zenobia Godschalk
Hedera Hashgraph
[email protected]