Ripple-friendly SBI Chief in Talks About Launching an STO Exchange

The CEO of SBI, one of Japan’s biggest financial companies, has spoken of his intention to co-launch a securities token offering (STO) exchange platform within the current financial year.

Per newspaper Jiji, SBI Holdings chief Yoshitaka Kitao, who is also a long-term Ripple partner and a member of the latter’s board, has been in talks with “several” fellow members of the Japan Security Token Offering Association about co-launching an STO exchange.

Fellow association members include the Monex Group, a securities platform that operates the Coincheck exchange, as well as Rakuten, the country’s answer to Amazon. Rakuten has both securities and crypto exchange business operations.

Kitao says he is looking at establishing “a private exchange and securities company,” and hopes to gain regulatory approval from the country’s top financial regulator, the Financial Services Agency (FSA), which polices cryptocurrency exchanges and securities operators “within FY2020.”

The newspaper says the Japan Security Token Offering Association is currently working on a set of self-regulatory rules that are “aimed at protecting investors.”

Kitao also added that prior to the STO exchange’s launch, Japan’s first STO products will likely roll out in June or July this year, and will be traded on other platforms – prior to the new STO platform’s launch.

As reported, in November 2019, SBI injected 7-figure sum into U.S. based security token platform Securitize, which intends to use the funds in part to build out its new Japan office. In February, music and electronics giant Sony indirectly invested in Securitize also.

“Security tokens solutions are increasingly being developed by many of the world’s biggest financial institutions, such as the recently announced consortium led by Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group,” Carlos Domingo, Co-founder and CEO of Securitize, recently told Cryptonews.com. “As technology delivers on greater efficiencies and lower costs for major transactions, we expect to see widespread adoption amongst the world’s global banks.”

SBI also runs the SBI Virtual Trade crypto exchange.

Last month, an SBI subsidiary announced that it would offer a second round of XRP handouts as a year-end benefit for shareholders – with the wider SBI Holdings also mulling an XRP shareholder benefits giveaway.
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