Boerse Stuttgart Group Receives DLT License for Seturion, a European Blockchain Settlement Platform

The Boerse Stuttgart Group has taken an important regulatory step in building its European infrastructure for digital securities. It is the first exchange group in Europe to receive a license for a so-called DLT Trading and Settlement System (DLT TSS). The approval was granted by the Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) as part of a process that also involved the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) and the European Central Bank (ECB).

With this authorization, Seturion—a platform belonging to the exchange group—now has the regulatory framework to settle securities transactions based on distributed ledger technology (DLT) across Europe. The service is aimed at banks, brokers, and trading venues that can connect their existing systems to a shared infrastructure.

To date, European securities settlement has been characterized by diverse national systems and market structures. This results in technical interfaces, additional coordination processes, and associated costs. Seturion is designed to simplify these processes and create a common technical foundation for the settlement of tokenized assets.

Blockchain Aims to Simplify Securities Settlement

Seturion’s business model relies on the direct settlement of transactions between participating market participants. So-called peer-to-peer settlement is intended to reduce various intermediary processes.

According to the Boerse Stuttgart Group, this enables banks and brokers to reduce their settlement costs by up to 90 percent. At the same time, the time between trade execution and the final transfer of assets is expected to be significantly shortened. Whether these savings are achieved in practice depends, among other things, on the respective technical integrations and existing settlement structures.

The license is not only the foundation for establishing Seturion as a pan-European digital settlement platform; it is also an important step toward realizing a unified European capital market.

Matthias Voelkel, CEO of the Boerse Stuttgart Group

Technologically, Seturion is designed for both public and private blockchains. In addition, the platform supports settlement using various forms of digital money, including blockchain-based payment instruments and central bank money.

This opens up another opportunity for trading venues: they can offer trading in tokenized assets and conduct the subsequent settlement via Seturion without having to apply for a corresponding DLT license themselves.

Partnerships Aim to Enable Europe-Wide Adoption

Seturion is already collaborating with several established financial firms to further develop the platform. Strategic partners include flatexDEGIRO, Nasdaq, Société Générale, and its digital asset subsidiary SG FORGE. Additional partnerships are planned.

Seturion CEO Lidia Kurt views regulatory approval as a prerequisite for more deeply integrating blockchain technology into the existing European capital markets infrastructure. The goal is to create a settlement platform that is open to various market participants while also meeting European regulatory requirements.

The Boerse Stuttgart Group already has experience with regulated blockchain trading systems. In Switzerland, Seturion operates SeturionX, a DLT trading system for tokenized assets authorized by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA).

With the new European license, the exchange group is expanding its activities in the area of digital capital market infrastructure. A key factor for further development will be how many banks, brokers, and trading venues actually connect their systems and to what extent tokenized securities will be settled via the platform in the future.