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Asset Servicing | February 12, 2026

From Change To Opportunity: Reinventing Financial Success

Financial institutions are navigating a landscape defined by rapid digitisation, compressed cycles, and the growth of digital assets. At Northern Trust’s recent Singapore event, industry leaders explored how flexible operating models, orchestrated ecosystems, and digital assets are transforming the foundations of financial success. 

The discussions revealed a sector in transition: most organisations are preparing for the impact and benefits of this digital disruption, but few feel fully ready. By 2030, manual processes like emailing reports and human data entry are expected to be obsolete, replaced by continuous, automated workflows. This summary distills the event’s core themes, practical insights, and forward-looking actions.

Acing operational model foundations

The traditional financial operating model—built on rigid, monolithic systems—is giving way to modular, adaptable structures.

Operating models are built around three foundational pillars – people, process and platforms. These pillars are being challenged in today’s dynamic tech environment.

Institutions are prioritizing flexibility in decision-making that enables them to be more nimble as market conditions and technologies evolve.  

Key Insights:

  • The value of architectural optionality is higher now given the rapid pace of technology change.
  • Interoperability is essential: firms are designing systems that can coexist with legacy infrastructure while embracing new digital rails.

Poll Highlight:

By 2030, participants expect emailed reports (36%), human data entry (28%), and Excel-based analytics (24%) to feel outdated, with reconciliation (12%) also on the decline.

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Turning Attention To Front Office Ecosystems

When an optimal back-office operation model is achieved, the front office arises as a natural next phase for reshaping into an ideal state. And recent global regulation is forcing this work on asset owners and asset managers whether they’re ready for the conversation or not.

As settlement cycles compress via T+1 and T+0 transitions, and as liquidity becomes dispersed across venues, the front office is evolving into a coordinated ecosystem. Data, analytics, and execution are increasingly synchronised, driving faster insights and more agile decision-making. 

Key Insights:

  • Unified data pipelines are replacing file-based exchanges, reducing reconciliation and manual exception handling.
  • Analytics are moving closer to execution, shortening feedback loops and enabling real-time action.
  • Firms are preparing for continuous markets, redefining cut-offs and automating exception handling.

Looking To The Future: Rewiring Finance With Tokenisation And Digital Assets

Tokenisation and digital money are reshaping how value moves through financial markets, and their impact stands to impact the entire investment lifecycle, from front to back office. The shift from batch-based, business-hour settlement to atomic, 24/7 settlement is challenging traditional operating assumptions and unlocking new opportunities.  

Key Insights:

  • Tokenised funds and private markets are demonstrating faster settlement, unified ownership records, and flexible distribution of assets.
  • Stablecoins are enabling 24/7 cross-border treasury operations, though governance and regulatory clarity remain critical.
  • Use case such as the one led by Northern Trust and Swift on Project Acacia, a research project being led by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) and the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre demonstrates how traditional infrastructure can interoperate with blockchain without a full “rip and replace”.

Poll Highlight:

Most organizations are in early planning or education phases for digital assets -

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Governance And Regulatory Evolution

Regulatory frameworks for digital assets are advancing globally, with a focus on investor protection, legal certainty, and interoperability standards. Institutions are embedding policy-aware design into pilots and establishing multi-jurisdictional playbooks for custody and risk management. 

Key Insights:

  • The U.S., Europe (Markets in Crypto-Assets, or “MiCA”), and Asia are setting clearer rules for stablecoins, digital securities, and exchanges.
  • Governance priorities include auditability, standards, and cross-border interoperability.

Key takeaways

  • Pilot targeted use cases for tokenisation and digital money, focusing on measurable outcomes.
  • Modernise data pipelines to support event-driven, continuous operations.
  • Strengthen cyber resilience and compliance for a 24/7 market environment.
  • Codify interoperability standards to bridge legacy and digital systems. 
  • Expand partnerships to unlock new distribution and innovation opportunities.

Closing Perspective

The future of financial success lies in adaptability, orchestration, and digital-native operations. Institutions that invest in flexible architectures, real-time controls, and governance can not only mitigate risk—they can capture new opportunities as markets move toward 24/7, atomic settlement.

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