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 applies to traditional financial instruments. Tokenised securities are conventional assets — equities, bonds, fund units — represented on a blockchain rather than held solely in conventional registries.

The report's significance lies in its source. The AFM supervises conduct in Dutch financial markets, while DNB oversees prudential stability, so a joint publication signals that both market-integrity and systemic-risk questions are being considered together. For market participants, this kind of regulatory attention typically precedes clearer guidance on custody, settlement finality and disclosure obligations.

What to watch is how the findings translate into formal rules or supervisory expectations, and whether other European regulators align with the Dutch approach as the EU's distributed ledger pilot regime matures. The report itself does not change any rules; it frames the terms of the debate. For now, it is best read as a signal of direction rather than a decision, and as a reminder that tokenisation is being assessed within existing regulatory frameworks rather than outside them.