By Elizabeth Howcroft
PARIS (Reuters) -Crypto tokens linked to mainstream financial assets could create new risks for investors, the global securities regulator IOSCO said in a report on Tuesday, as the finance industry remains split on the merits of "tokenization".
Tokenization - the process of creating blockchain-based tokens linked to real-world assets such as stocks or bonds - has seen a revival of interest among crypto enthusiasts this year, with new tokenized products being sold to the public
via online brokers.
IOSCO, a body whose members are the regulators responsible for almost all of the world's securities markets, said that the majority of the risks around tokenization come under pre-existing frameworks, but that there could be new risks and vulnerabilities stemming from the underlying technology.
"Although adoption remains limited, tokenization has the potential to reshape how financial assets are issued, traded, and serviced," said Tuang Lee Lim, chair of IOSCO's board-level fintech taskforce.
The different ways tokenized assets are structured could leave investors uncertain about whether they own the underlying asset or just the crypto token, and the third-party token issuer creates counterparty risks, IOSCO added, echoing some of the concerns raised by the European Union's securities regulator in September.
"Tokenization could also suffer from potential spill-over effects from increased inter-linkages with the crypto asset markets," IOSCO said.
Some mainstream financial institutions, including Nasdaq, are making a push into tokenization, but other Wall Street players have raised concerns.
EFFICIENCY GAINS 'UNEVEN'
For years, various financial institutions have experimented with issuing blockchain-based versions of assets.
Commercial interest in tokenization is rising, but actual adoption is still "limited", IOSCO said.
Promoters of tokenized assets say that using blockchain can cut trading costs, speed up settlement, facilitate around-the-clock trading and even attract younger investors.
But IOSCO said that "efficiency gains are uneven" as market participants still need to use traditional market infrastructure for the trading processes, rather than replacing it with blockchain.
"Issuers do not tend to publicly disclose actual quantifiable efficiency gains, if any," IOSCO said.
(Reporting by Elizabeth Howcroft; Editing by Tommy Reggiori Wilkes and Susan Fenton)
