As fintech enters a new phase of maturity, the lines between traditional finance and digital innovation are blurring fast. Markus Fehn, Head of Strategy and Innovation at Chartered Investment, shares how the company is bridging that divide — from early blockchain experiments to BaFin-regulated tokenization — and why the future of finance will depend less on disruption and more on collaboration.
Q: Chartered Investment has become one of Europe’s key enablers of digital securitization. What’s driving your strategy and focus right now?
Markus: Our mission is to connect innovation and regulation. Over the past decade, we’ve built infrastructure that transforms financial innovation into regulated investment products. When I joined, we were a five-person team servicing around €200 million in assets. Today, we have more than 75 employees, over €10 billion in serviced assets, and more than 1,000 investment products.
That growth reflects our commitment to responsible innovation: building bridges between the traditional and digital sides of finance rather than disrupting either one.
Q: Chartered Investment operates across several pillars. Could you outline them?
Markus: Yes — our business is built on three core pillars.
Together, these pillars make us a full-stack investment technology provider: manufacturing financial products, managing their lifecycle, and ensuring regulatory integrity throughout.
Q: You mentioned early work with tokenization. How did that journey begin?
Markus: We began experimenting with Ethereum back in 2018. It was very early — technically fascinating, but practically limited. Back then, there were no stablecoins or “cash-on-chain,” so real-world settlement was inefficient.
Today, the environment is completely different. Stablecoins have matured, regulation has caught up, and Germany’s Electronic Securities Act (eWpG) provides the legal foundation for digital registries. With our BaFin license, we can now issue and manage tokenized securities directly within the regulated system. We call this digital securitization, the next evolution of capital markets infrastructure.
Q: What are the main benefits of tokenization for capital markets?
Markus: Tokenization optimizes every step of a product’s lifecycle, from issuance and settlement to custody and compliance. It increases efficiency in fund subscriptions, cross-border payments, and investor transparency.
Q: Real-world assets (RWAs) have become a major buzzword in fintech. How do you view this space?
Markus: RWAs are promising but complex. You need to address practical issues like custody, valuation, and liquidity. For example, there have been attempts to securitize physical assets such as wine, but pricing and storage risks make that difficult to scale.
For now, I believe tokenization of financial assets, funds, bonds, and structured products, will lead adoption. As the infrastructure matures, credible RWA models will follow.
Q: AI is transforming financial services. How is it influencing your business?
Markus: We see AI as an enabler, not a disruptor. It enhances how we design, manage, and monitor investment products: improving risk analysis, compliance monitoring, and data-driven decision-making. But human oversight remains essential. The real opportunity lies in combining human judgment with machine precision.
Q: How would you describe the evolution of fintech in this current cycle?
Markus: The first wave of fintech was about disruption, challenging incumbents and rethinking customer experiences. The second wave, where we are now, is about integration. Fintech has become infrastructure. It’s embedding itself in banks, asset managers, and even regulatory systems.
At Chartered Investment, our role is to make that integration possible: to connect new technology with institutional trust and operational reliability.
Markus: We’ll continue expanding internationally and deepening our technology capabilities, especially in digital asset infrastructure. Our focus is on regulated tokenization, lifecycle automation, and seamless interaction between traditional and decentralized systems.
