Today, asset managers looking to launch digital asset-type investment products will need to collaborate with multiple intermediaries and service providers, including transfer agents, fund administrators, and payments providers, before they can design and launch the fund. The process for a qualified investor looking to move from fiat currency to digital assets will similarly be intermediated by different parties.

All told, this makes the process of launching or accessing these funds not only time-consuming, but costly and risky, which, outside of the most well-resourced players, would discourage most asset managers and institutional investors from entering the market.

How can digital fund management and investment servicing be simplified? Read our flow report to find out.

Project DAMA – a collaboration between Deutsche Bank and Memento Blockchain– sought to address the challenges associated with launching and accessing digital funds. This proof of concept was also awarded the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s Financial Sector Technology and Innovation (FSTI) Proof of Concept (POC) grant on 5 August 2022. The FSTI POC grant provides funding support for experimentation, development, and dissemination of nascent innovative technologies in the financial services sector.

By providing a one-stop digital fund investment servicing platform, asset managers and their existing transfer agents, fund administrators, and custodians can plug-in-and-play to significantly reduce the effort and cost required to launch and administer digital funds. At the same time, Project DAMA aims to be an open architecture platform that can facilitate investors’ access to different funds from different asset managers, as well as cater to different custody models.