Global financial leaders moving trillions in assets head to Seoul for KBW2026

[Financial News] Key executives from major financial institutions driving the on-chain shift in global financial markets will gather in Seoul this September. Leaders from firms spanning traditional finance and digital assets, including Franklin Templeton Investments, which manages $1.8 trillion in assets, Nuveen, which safeguards and manages $20 trillion, and global credit rating agencies Moody's Corporation and S&P Global, will discuss the future of institutional finance.
FACTBLOCK, the organizer of Korea Blockchain Week (KBW), said on the 1st that Chetan Karkhanis, senior vice president and head of client strategy for digital assets at Franklin Templeton Investments; Alvin Chia, senior vice president and head of digital asset innovation for Asia-Pacific at Nuveen; and Jin Fang, executive director at Moody's Corporation, will speak at 'KBW2026 with Upbit.'
Franklin Templeton Investments is one of the traditional asset managers that has actively applied Public Blockchain technology to financial products. In 2021, it became the first U.S.-registered mutual fund to launch a fund that used Public Blockchain as an official system for trade processing and share recordkeeping. More recently, it has expanded into using tokenised money market fund shares as collateral for institutional digital asset trading.
At Nuveen, senior vice president Chia, who leads the company's digital asset business in Asia-Pacific, will attend. As of the end of June this year, Nuveen's assets under custody and management totaled $20 trillion. After launching a tokenised money market fund share class, the firm is also working to build an institutional custody and asset management framework using the blockchain-based Canton Network.
Speakers from global credit rating agencies will also take part. At Moody's Corporation, Executive Director Jin Fang, who oversees sovereign and sub-sovereign credit ratings in Asia-Pacific and strategy for the Asian digital economy, will speak. This year, Moody's unveiled a system that can provide its own credit ratings and credit analysis data to blockchain financial infrastructure. At S&P Global, Managing Director Charles Jansen, who oversees the transition to Decentralized Finance (DeFi), will also join the event.
At New York Life Investment Management in the United States, Thomas Tsai, managing director and head of multi-asset solutions, who oversees more than $11 billion in global investment strategies, will attend. From Japan, Ryo Kato, general manager at SBI SECURITIES, will travel to Seoul. SBI SECURITIES has previously demonstrated an inter-broker trading structure designed with future cross-border distribution of token securities in mind, using Ethereum and USD Coin (USDC).
Other speakers include John D'Agostino, head of institutional strategy at Coinbase; Mike Belshe, co-founder and CEO of BitGo; Hong Kim, co-founder and CTO of Bitwise Asset Management; and Yuval Rooz, co-founder and CEO of Digital Asset.
Now in its ninth year, KBW will be held at WALKERHILL HOTELS & RESORTS in Gwangjin District, Seoul, with Upbit as the presenting partner. The event will begin on Sept. 29 with the 'Upbit Institutional Summit,' focused on institutional investors and invited guests, followed by the main conference, 'KBW2026 with Upbit,' from Sept. 30 to Oct. 1.
Park Wi-ik, CEO of FACTBLOCK, said, "A few years ago, blockchain projects in finance were closer to technology demonstrations and feasibility tests. Now, they are moving into a stage where core functions that actually make financial markets work, such as products, custody and credit rating data, are being connected to on-chain systems." He added, "Key figures from global financial institutions and digital asset companies will gather in one place to discuss the next direction of institutional finance."
[email protected] Bae Han-geul Reporter