Archax, a forthcoming institutional securities exchange, announced on Monday the appointment of Alex Royle as its chief compliance officer.

He is bringing years of experience working with the regulatory agencies, which is going to be a major advantage for the London-based company.

Prior to his new role, Royle was working for the United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and was responsible for trading venue supervision and market structure policy. His role also included assessments of new MTF/OTF applications with a particular focus on crypto-derivatives and blockchain technology.

He also spent a couple of years at the European Securities Market Authority (ESMA) as a policy expert for secondary markets.

Commenting on his new role, Royle said: “Archax, with its highly experienced team from the financial markets, clear strategy and vision, and its attitude towards regulation, clearly have the proposition to legitimize the space at the institutional level. Having been involved with the FCA’s strategy around crypto and tokenized assets, I now look forward to helping launch the first genuinely institutional market for these instruments, as well as ensuring that the Archax offerings meet the most stringent of requirements.”

Available only to institutions

Based in London, Archax will tokenize all types of assets, including equities of private companies, debts, properties, arts, and funds. It is planning to launch its services in mid-2020, which will be available to institutions and professional clients.

Last year, Finance Magnates reported that the company is planning to launch a digital asset custody service as well.

“Archax is designed to be ‘institutional’ throughout – it’s technology, systems, operations, processes, team, culture and products. Therefore, compliance and regulation are at the very forefront of our strategy. We see the tokenization of assets as the next significant and regulated step in the evolution of the crypto world and something that could potentially revolutionize traditional financial markets too,” Graham Rodford, co-founder and CEO of the platform, added.