Private Bank Kleinwort Hambros Launches Blockchain Exchange-Traded Note

Private bank Kleinwort Hambros launched an exchange-traded note (ETN) made up of blockchain-related companies, financial news outlet Finextra reported on April 8.

Kleinwort Hambros is owned by Societe Generale, acting as their private wealth management division in the United Kingdom. Societe Generale itself is a multinational investment bank headquartered in Paris, with total assets of around 1.3 trillion euros ($1.4 trillion) in 2018.

Per the report, the new derivative is available for a minimum investment of £1,000 (equivalent to about $1,300) and has been listed in Luxemburg. The stocks reportedly include 20 companies which are expected to profit from blockchain and distributed ledger technology (DLT) adoption.

More precisely, the companies are expected to earn revenue through the sale of relevant software and services or improve their profit margins with the adoption of decentralized technologies.

The companies that make up the ETN reportedly come from the technology, shipping, oil and gas, custody banking and industrials industries. The press release quotes John Birdwood, portfolio manager at Kleinwort Hambros, as stating that the bank noticed increasing interest on their clients’ part towards blockchain, prompting the development of the product.

Kleinwort Hambros, according to a report released by the company in March 2018, has £16.3 billion of assets (around $21 billion) under management, over a thousand employees, and offices in London, Cambridge, Newbury, Leeds, Edinburgh, Guernsey, Jersey and Gibraltar.

As Cointelegraph reported in January, Ed Tilly, CEO, president and chairman at the Chicago Board Options Exchange, declared that there is a need for Bitcoin (BTC) exchange-traded notes in order for Wall Street institutional investors to join the crypto space.

At the end of March, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission has delayed its decision on a rule change to the Securities Act that would allow the listing of Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETF).