A press release, "BNY Launches Global Digital Transfer Agency Capabilities, Extending Leadership in Fund Servicing to Digital Market," tells us, "BNY ... announced the launch of its new Digital Transfer Agency (TA) capabilities, meeting an expanded set of client needs by extending the firm's leading TA services to support digitally native funds. BNY Digital TA modernizes BNY's fund servicing capabilities to support both digital and traditional asset funds in an end-to-end lifecycle across multiple jurisdictions and blockchains, enabling a unified client servicing experience." (Note: Crane Data's Peter Crane will be speaking Thursday afternoon at 3pm on an AFP Webinar titled, "2026 Survey Benchmarks: Real-Time Liquidity, and Stablecoins in Treasury." He'll be joined by AFP's Tom Hunt, Invesco's Laurie Brignac and Flix North America's Mark Kirsch.)
Emily Portney, Global Head of Asset Servicing at BNY, comments, "With this new capability, BNY is helping power the future of financial markets through digital market infrastructure with a global, scalable platform that integrates tokenization, distribution, and custody. We are excited to support clients as they expand into new asset classes, enabling true on-chain mobility of real-world assets, with legal representation of the fund's books and records on a public blockchain."
The release explains, "When tokenized funds are issued on a blockchain from the start, the legal title and economic value of the funds exist on-chain rather than remain in the mirror-token or 'digital twin' models that have prevailed to date. For fund providers, on-chain books and records underpin a unified 'source of truth' across fund activity occurring on the blockchain. Full on-chain asset and peer-to-peer mobility will be supported through both fiat and stablecoin subscriptions and redemptions, enabled by new mint/burn capabilities, all within the BNY ecosystem."
BNY's Chief Product and Innovation Officer Carolyn Weinberg says, "Digital Transfer Agency capabilities represent the next evolution of fund servicing, combining the same operational rigor, transparency and trust of traditional services paired with the future of innovation in digital markets. As fund managers increasingly bring digital investment products to market, we're excited to bring together the resilient framework they rely on with digital markets interoperability that makes asset servicing and mobility easier."
BNY's statement continues, "Digital TA is part of BNY's integrated digital assets offering, which spans custody, stablecoin enablement, tokenized deposits and infrastructure supporting the institutional adoption of digital assets. Those capabilities are directly connected to the firm's underlying TA recordkeeping infrastructure, creating a trusted source of ownership and transaction data across both traditional and digital environments."
BNY Investments' Stephanie Pierce, adds, "We are pleased to advance BNY's ongoing efforts to bring together distinct capabilities into integrated, innovative solutions that address evolving client needs. Digital TA will further strengthen our ability to combine investment and servicing expertise to deliver digital asset solutions that simplify cash and liquidity management."
Finally, the release states, "The service will initially launch with select clients in the U.S. and U.K., with plans for expansion. BNY will offer a new digitally-native money market fund from BNY Investments Dreyfus with its BLIQUID tokens representing fund shares. Baillie Gifford, which co-designed its offering with BNY as part of a long-term strategic relationship, has already brought it to market, launching the Baillie Gifford Enhanced Yield Fund (BAGEY), the first publicly available, fully native U.K.-regulated tokenized fund. BlackRock is also expected to use these capabilities to launch BSTBL, a new tokenized share class of its money market fund designed to meet stablecoin reserve requirements."
In other news, website AdvisorHub posted an article titled, "Cash Sweep Suits Raise Legal Costs for Raymond James, Others." It states, "Investors' cash sweep litigation continues to weigh on wealth firms' costs and attention, even though the Securities and Exchange Commission under the Trump administration has concluded its pending probes without meting out punitive fines. Raymond James Financial [last] Thursday reported that its 'professional fees' rose by $27 million, or 75% sequentially, to $63 million. The 'vast majority' of that increase was related to legal costs tied to defending against cash sweep claims, according to Chief Executive Officer Paul Shoukry." (See our July 27 News, "Raymond James, Ameriprise Q2 Earnings Calls Thin on AI, Cash, Sweeps.")
They write, "The increases would continue into future quarters although not at the same rate as the past three months, according to Raymond James Chief Financial officer Butch Oolog. The executives declined to specify the total spent on cash sweep litigation in the quarter. 'We believe we have strong defenses to the claims asserted and we are vigorously defending the action,' Oorlog said on the company's earnings call. 'However, such defense is triggering an increase in our cost.' Shoukry noted that Raymond James is not the only wealth management company facing such costs and more than a dozen others are 'dealing with the same type of litigation.'"
The piece continues, "Starting in 2024, plaintiff lawyers began filing proposed class actions against wealth management firms, including JPMorgan Chase, UBS Wealth Management USA, Ameriprise Financial, LPL Financial, Merrill Lynch parent Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo. The lawsuits all revolve around the same allegations that firms profited by raking in most of the interest from uninvested cash in advisory accounts while paying clients paltry rates. Several firms boosted their rates on sweep programs in response."
It says, "Under the Biden administration, the federal government was also investigating the companies related to their cash sweep rates. In January 2025, before Trump's inauguration, Merrill and Wells agreed to pay $60 million combined for failing to pay advisory customers a fair rate on uninvested cash in their advisory accounts. By May 2025, after Trump took office, some of those companies, including Morgan Stanley and LPL, disclosed that the SEC had ended the probes without any enforcement action."
AdvisorHub comments, "Since then, courts presiding over the private plaintiffs' lawsuits 'began cutting the marquee claims out' of those cases, according to a blog posted by Rain Intelligence, a legal consulting firm. 'The plaintiffs' bar, instead of retreating, rebuilt the theory around a narrower and more durable question: not whether the rate was too low, but whether the firm owed the client a duty in the first place,' the blog writers said."
Finally, they add, "The consultants reported that one bank had one case dismissed but courts denied Merrill and Ameriprise's motions to dismiss, and let claims against JPMorgan survive. Meanwhile, other private plaintiffs are taking the cue from the court rulings and filing additional complaints, including against Janney Montgomery Scott and Betterment, according to the blog post. About 20 cases are pending in federal courts, the Rain Intelligence consultants reported."
For more on brokerage sweep lawsuits, see these Crane Data News stories: "IN: SEC Drops LPL Sweeps Action" (2/25/26), "Reuters on JPMorgan Sweeps Lawsuit" (2/19/26), "Judge Dismisses US Bancorp Sweep Suit" (2/4/26), "FINRA Fines APFS on Sweeps" (1/6/26), "Schwab Sweeps Sued" (8/18/25), "Barron's: SEC Done w/MS Sweeps" (5/21/25), "ignites on Brokerage Sweep Suits" (4/21/25), "Inv News on Pershing Cash Grab; Osaic Suit" (2/20/25), "ignites on Brokerage Sweep Suits" (4/21/25), "WSJ: SEC, Brokerage Sweeps Settle" (1/21/25), "Schwab Latest Firm Sued Over Sweeps" (12/12/24), "Wells Quiet on Sweeps on Q3 Call" (10/18/24), "Barron's Writes on Brokerage Sweep Woes" (9/23/24), "Bloomberg Law on Brokerage Sweep Suits" (9/19/24), "Sept. MFI: Sticking with Prime Inst; MMFs Hit Record; Sweeps Scrutiny" (9/9/24), "Barron's: JPMorgan Sued on Sweeps" (8/29/24), "More on SEC Sweeps Scrutiny; Inv News on Sweeps, UBS's Earnings Call" (8/20/24), "Law Firm Says Bolster Disclosures, Rates on Sweeps" (8/13/24), "Barron's: BofA Cites Risk from Sweeps" (8/8/24), "Brokerage Sweeps Lawsuits" (8/5/24), "AdvisorHub on Wells Sweep Suit" (8/2/24) and "IN: Ameriprise Sued Over Sweeps" (7/31/24).
