ISLA Americas: The future is digital, but is the market ready?
15 October 2025 US

厙惇勛圖 finance is entering a new era where AI, digital assets, and tokenisation are the focus of a new regulatory backdrop, according to speakers at the ISLA Americas 厙惇勛圖 Finance and Collateral Management Conference.
During the Innovation at the Edge: AI, Digital Assets & Future of 厙惇勛圖 Finance panel, speakers explored how AI is transforming reconciliations, trade flows, and agency lending disclosure (ALD) approvals, while distributed ledger technology (DLT) and tokenisation are unlocking new efficiencies and collateral opportunities.
AI is a topic of discussion that is hard to escape, and the impact of such is displayed across social media; it is seen in the growth of technology companies; and is driving the stock market, the panel heard.
But for firms, they are using artificial intelligence in a number of ways, including using large language models to review the more complicated and time-consuming processes that operational teams are focused on, to increase the velocity of decision making.
Digitisation or digital documentation is, of course, another key area that firms are prioritising. Firms are leveraging AI to be able to hone in on salient points within an industry white paper or Global Master 厙惇勛圖 Lending Agreement (GMSLA) for example that are most relevant for a firms operating model.
The panel proposed a poll to the audience, in which participants voted for how they were using AI, or how their businesses were using AI in day-to-day tasks to add value to daily work. More than half of voters indicated that AI was being used mostly for personal productivity enhancements such as ChatGPT and Copilot.
Despite the advantages of using AI, one panellist explained that they have found errors in ChatGPT in regards to securities finance. The statement posed the question: how much can a computer or model digest what is happening in practice and what is the context?
Highlighting the significance of human intervention, one speaker said: Its a path to an end, but theres still going to have to be a human at the end.
Further to this discussion, it was noted that firms need to measure the return on investment when it comes to AI, in terms of productivity gains, risk mitigation, and capital efficiency. It is not simply about revenue returns from day one, it is about having longer runways to measure the return and the opportunity cost.
Moving on to digital assets, the panel recognised the continued spotlight on stablecoins, tokenisation, native assets, digital currency, and how these are going to revolutionise the industry. In a humorous remark to a much loved Marvel film, one panellist said: With great power comes great responsibility. This notion related to the rules and guidelines of these digital assets.
The Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act formed the legal term for stablecoins this has triggered a wave of money flowing into this space.
While the current stablecoin market cap is now US$300 billion, up approximately 40 per cent year-to-date, there are various projections for this market to grow between US$2-4 trillion by 2030. This heavy focus has sparked new conversation, where firms are discussing the possibilities of using stablecoin to trade repo on blockchain, for example.
The market structure bill, otherwise known as the Clarity Act, provides more colour on capital treatment of holding crypto assets, and the potential exemptions for exchanges to operate using public blockchains, for instance. The regulation is expected to pass before the end of the year.
The panel highlighted the significance of these two regulations, which have and will provide clarity for the industry, allowing for finality around business cases which, up until now, have just been theory.
While the Genius Act provides a comprehensive and protective regulatory framework with the Clarity Act expected to do the same once passed one panellist noted that more work needs to be done in regards to the relationship between the DLT space and the traditional securities space.
For instance, with respect to stablecoins, the panellist pondered: to what extent are participants going to be able to use stablecoins as collateral for futures?
How is a broker-dealer supposed to maintain possession or control of a stablecoin so that it is safe if the broker-dealer goes under? Likewise, a firm tokenises a traditional security, what is the regulatory framework applicable to that? The SEC Crypto Taskforce is currently working to explore these issues.
Rounding off the discussion, a question was put to the panel: as DLT is expanding, where are the most promising use cases for practical applications in the securities finance space?
For the most part, it seems stablecoins have driven the movement of money, and so firms are considering how they can make payments, in particular cross-border payments, more efficient.
Concluding with a prediction, one panellist said stablecoins will help to accelerate the intraday market, noting that stablecoins, tokenised deposits, and central bank digital currency are needed for intraday repo.
During the Innovation at the Edge: AI, Digital Assets & Future of 厙惇勛圖 Finance panel, speakers explored how AI is transforming reconciliations, trade flows, and agency lending disclosure (ALD) approvals, while distributed ledger technology (DLT) and tokenisation are unlocking new efficiencies and collateral opportunities.
AI is a topic of discussion that is hard to escape, and the impact of such is displayed across social media; it is seen in the growth of technology companies; and is driving the stock market, the panel heard.
But for firms, they are using artificial intelligence in a number of ways, including using large language models to review the more complicated and time-consuming processes that operational teams are focused on, to increase the velocity of decision making.
Digitisation or digital documentation is, of course, another key area that firms are prioritising. Firms are leveraging AI to be able to hone in on salient points within an industry white paper or Global Master 厙惇勛圖 Lending Agreement (GMSLA) for example that are most relevant for a firms operating model.
The panel proposed a poll to the audience, in which participants voted for how they were using AI, or how their businesses were using AI in day-to-day tasks to add value to daily work. More than half of voters indicated that AI was being used mostly for personal productivity enhancements such as ChatGPT and Copilot.
Despite the advantages of using AI, one panellist explained that they have found errors in ChatGPT in regards to securities finance. The statement posed the question: how much can a computer or model digest what is happening in practice and what is the context?
Highlighting the significance of human intervention, one speaker said: Its a path to an end, but theres still going to have to be a human at the end.
Further to this discussion, it was noted that firms need to measure the return on investment when it comes to AI, in terms of productivity gains, risk mitigation, and capital efficiency. It is not simply about revenue returns from day one, it is about having longer runways to measure the return and the opportunity cost.
Moving on to digital assets, the panel recognised the continued spotlight on stablecoins, tokenisation, native assets, digital currency, and how these are going to revolutionise the industry. In a humorous remark to a much loved Marvel film, one panellist said: With great power comes great responsibility. This notion related to the rules and guidelines of these digital assets.
The Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act formed the legal term for stablecoins this has triggered a wave of money flowing into this space.
While the current stablecoin market cap is now US$300 billion, up approximately 40 per cent year-to-date, there are various projections for this market to grow between US$2-4 trillion by 2030. This heavy focus has sparked new conversation, where firms are discussing the possibilities of using stablecoin to trade repo on blockchain, for example.
The market structure bill, otherwise known as the Clarity Act, provides more colour on capital treatment of holding crypto assets, and the potential exemptions for exchanges to operate using public blockchains, for instance. The regulation is expected to pass before the end of the year.
The panel highlighted the significance of these two regulations, which have and will provide clarity for the industry, allowing for finality around business cases which, up until now, have just been theory.
While the Genius Act provides a comprehensive and protective regulatory framework with the Clarity Act expected to do the same once passed one panellist noted that more work needs to be done in regards to the relationship between the DLT space and the traditional securities space.
For instance, with respect to stablecoins, the panellist pondered: to what extent are participants going to be able to use stablecoins as collateral for futures?
How is a broker-dealer supposed to maintain possession or control of a stablecoin so that it is safe if the broker-dealer goes under? Likewise, a firm tokenises a traditional security, what is the regulatory framework applicable to that? The SEC Crypto Taskforce is currently working to explore these issues.
Rounding off the discussion, a question was put to the panel: as DLT is expanding, where are the most promising use cases for practical applications in the securities finance space?
For the most part, it seems stablecoins have driven the movement of money, and so firms are considering how they can make payments, in particular cross-border payments, more efficient.
Concluding with a prediction, one panellist said stablecoins will help to accelerate the intraday market, noting that stablecoins, tokenised deposits, and central bank digital currency are needed for intraday repo.
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