AFM and DNB report on tokenised securities - Global Regulation Tomorrow

Dutch regulators AFM and DNB have published a joint report on tokenised securities, adding the Netherlands to the list of jurisdictions examining how distributed ledger technology fits within existing financial rules. Tokenised securities are conventional instruments—such as bonds or fund units—represented on a blockchain, which can allow for faster settlement and round-the-clock transfer.

The report's significance lies less in any single conclusion than in the direction of travel. When a conduct authority and a central bank collaborate, it signals that tokenisation is being treated as a supervisory question rather than a purely technical one. For market participants, that framing matters: the key issues are likely to centre on investor protection, settlement finality, and how tokenised instruments interact with custody and prudential requirements.

What to watch is how the report's themes feed into wider European work, including the DLT pilot regime and upcoming rules for crypto-asset markets. Firms exploring tokenised issuance will want to monitor whether national guidance converges or diverges, since fragmentation across member states could shape where such activity is ultimately based.