Generali et le Groupe APICIL entrent au capital d’IZNES, plateforme paneuropéenne d’achat et de vente d’OPC[1] utilisant la technologie blockchain. Créée en 2017 par un consortium de six sociétés de gestion, IZNES est aujourd’hui soutenue par deux nouveaux investisseurs de renom qui entrent à son capital : Generali et le Groupe APICIL, via son fonds dédié Insurtech Capital. Ils deviennent respectivement le premier assureur et le premier groupe de protection sociale à entrer au capital de la Fintech. Ce partenariat stratégique donne un coup d’accélérateur au développement d’un nouvel écosystème en blockchain pour le traitement des opérations sur OPC.

Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) is going to be the catalyst of profound changes in the fund industry. Traditionally, post-market activities are not a sector that has benefitted from substantial investments within major financial groups, and the asset management post-market segment is no exception to this. As a consequence, players suffer from operational difficulties, particularly regarding distribution, and especially cross-border distribution. Capital and goods move freely and easily within the European Union, but this is much less the case for UCITS despite Europe being an immense savings reservoir.

The legislator has drafted a proposal for digital securities that could trigger a revolution in the German capital market. Four aspects point in this direction: First, securities are being detached from the paper-based certificate in a systematic way, thus dematerialized, which creates the basis for the digital capital market of the future. Second, in the future, there will be the possibility that in addition to the central securities depository Clearstream — which belongs to Deutsche Börse — other registers perform the same function. Competition is therefore guaranteed. Third, the legislator also enables issuers themselves — possibly even industrial corporations — to keep the register for their own securities. Fourth, the legislator is creating the necessary conditions under German law for securities to be issued on decentralized blockchain systems such as possibly Ethereum — the second largest crypto currency after Bitcoin. — Philipp Sandner, Johannes Blassl