From Experimentation to Infrastructure: What TSAM New York Revealed About Digitization

[Kirsten Smith]

TSAM New York returned to the Marriott Marquis on September 22–23, 2026, convening buy-side leaders across investment operations, technology, data, and distribution. ​

The agenda spanned eight streams, including AI/Technology and Intelligent Automation, Data Strategy, Investment Operations, and Change Leadership and Operating Model Transformation, a lineup that reflects where the industry’s attention now sits.​

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That framing is worth sitting with, because the questions running through those streams are the same ones surfacing in State Street’s published research: not whether digitization matters, but where it delivers measurable efficiency and what operating model changes are required to capture it.

The shift from proof-of-concept to production​

Speaking at the Financial Times Digital Assets Summit in London, Angus Fletcher, head of Digital Asset Solutions at State Street, described the transition directly: “The industry has moved beyond proof-of-concept and into the early stages of scaled adoption.” The data supports that read. State Street’s third annual Digital Assets and Emerging Technology Study, produced with Oxford Economics and informed by more than 300 institutional investors worldwide, found nearly 60% of institutions planning to increase digital asset allocations in the coming year, with average exposure expected to double within three years.

Tokenized money market funds, tokenized deposits, and stablecoins are enabling more flexible liquidity access and more efficient capital movement across markets.​

Where efficiency is actually showing up​

Fletcher’s point was that gains appear first where traditional processes are most complex, particularly cash and collateral management. Tokenized money market funds, tokenized deposits, and stablecoins are enabling more flexible liquidity access and more efficient capital movement across markets. Tokenized deposits carry the potential to make money “truly 24/7,” while embedding processes in smart contracts opens the door to “almost instant settlement with no single point of failure,” with direct implications for counterparty risk and deployment speed.

Institutions are naming those benefits explicitly: increased transparency (52%), faster trading (39%), and lower compliance costs (32%), with nearly half anticipating cost savings exceeding 40%. Private markets are the first frontier. Private equity and private fixed income are projected as the first asset classes to be tokenized, reflecting a focus on unlocking liquidity in traditionally illiquid markets. By 2030, a majority expect 10–24% of institutional investments to be executed through tokenized instruments.

We are moving beyond experimentation and into practical, scalable solutions that meet the highest standards of security and compliance.​

Infrastructure is the constraint​

This is where operating model and technology converge. In January 2026, State Street launched its Digital Asset Platform, infrastructure spanning wallet management, custodial, and cash capabilities across private and public permissioned blockchain networks, supporting tokenized MMFs, ETFs, tokenized deposits, and stablecoins.

“We are moving beyond experimentation and into practical, scalable solutions that meet the highest standards of security and compliance,” said Joerg Ambrosius, president of Investment Services. Donna Milrod, chief product officer, was more direct about client demand: “Clients want trusted infrastructure that makes digital assets practical, not experimental.” That build continued in April 2026 with tokenized fund servicing, delivering from Luxembourg by end of 2026, extending fund administration, custody, and transfer agency to digitally native structures alongside traditional funds within a single institutional operating model.

Organizationally, firms are restructuring to match. 40% of institutional investors now have a dedicated digital assets team or business unit, and nearly a third say blockchain operations are integral to their wider digital transformation strategy.

Many investors are confident the next decade will be defined by hybrid models blending traditional and digital operations; others remain skeptical that fully digital infrastructure will ever replace traditional systems.​

The tension that remains​

Expectations are not uniform. Many investors are confident the next decade will be defined by hybrid models blending traditional and digital operations; others remain skeptical that fully digital infrastructure will ever replace traditional systems. Challenges persist in automation, interoperability, and regulatory clarity, and blockchain, generative AI, and quantum computing are increasingly converging within the same transformation strategies.

The Takeaway​

The operating model discussions filling the TSAM agenda and the infrastructure questions in State Street’s research are aligned. Digitization is becoming a data and operating model problem first, and a technology story second.


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