Hedera Governing Council Just Got a New Member — A Major Asset Manager from the UK

Hedera, a enterprise-grade public network for the decentralized economy, recently welcomed a new member of the Hedera Governing Council. The newest member is abrdn plc, a UK-based asset manager that currently holds £508bn AUM, according to the project’s announcement. Hedera continued to say that the company has joined the council in order to help transform existing structural inefficiencies in the fund management industry using blockchain technology.

1/3 We are excited to announce that @abrdn_plc – the UK-based asset manager currently holding £508bn AUM – has joined the @Hedera Governing Council in a move to transform existing structural inefficiencies in the fund management industry using #DLT.https://t.co/2R4bhHXBBG

— Hedera (@hedera) October 6, 2022

Why is abrdn joining Hedera’s Council?

The asset manager is currently examining different prospects for the tokenization of investment funds. It chose hedera due to its operational efficiency, strong governance, and environmental sustainability as the most important factors that impacted the firm’s decision. It believes that these qualities can help drive modernization in the fund management industry,

Senior investment manager at abrdn, Duncan Moir, commented on the move by saying that Hedera has a strong emphasis on these qualities, and that aligns closely with abrdn’s own values. In short, the two seem like a perfect fit.

Hedera itself noted that it looks forward to gaining new insights that abrdn will bring to the council, and also “the exploration of collaborative opportunities with existing Council Members that provide services for the fund management industry, including banks, law firms, and tech companies.”

How does abrdn benefit from joining the Council?

According to Moir, abrdn will now be the first asset manager to be accepted to the Hedera’s Governing Council. This move will further strengthen the company’s position as a leader in innovation and development of the digital asset ecosystem. He also praised Hedera’s technology, noting that its Byzantine Fault Tolerance security features rapid speed that offers a highly promising DLT solution for the fund management sector.

abrdn currently has more than 5,000 employees globally and is already considered to be one of the leaders in its field. Now, it seeks to bring new insights into financial services governance to the Council. The company differs from other participating financial institutions, such as banks, as it has fiduciary responsibilities that make it more difficult to deal with governance.

This, and other structural inefficiencies that have made its job more difficult in the past, can now easily be removed thanks to the technology that Hedera has to offer.

The Council’s co-chair of the Membership Committee, Bill Miller, stated that the client-first mission at abrdn also aligns with Hedera’s goals of bringing as many resources of enterprises with the innovative capabilities of Web3. This will allow users to benefit from the DLT infrastructure that operates at maximum efficiency.

And so, as abrdn leads the investment industry towards tokenized assets, Hedera will secure underlying tech to overcome any barriers encountered along the way.

To learn more about Hedera, visit our Investing in Hedera guide.