Dilmun Leach
Partner, Walkers (CI) LP
Jersey
Our team advised Backed Finance AG on all Jersey legal and regulatory aspects in forming the Jersey issuer of tokenised assets, including procuring approval from the JFSC for this novel platform. The Jersey issuer issues tokenised structured products that track the value of underlying real-world assets, including listed stocks and ETFs.
A team led by Dilmun Leach, partner of Walkers (CI) LP, advised on all Jersey corporate and regulatory elements, with senior counsel Sarah Townsend and senior associate Ellen Jarvis assisting. The team at Jersey corporate services provider Cavendish Fiduciary (Jersey) Limited, led by directors James Cunningham-Davis and Lindsay Bracegirdle provides Jersey administration and corporate services to the issuer. Walkers worked closely with Swiss law firm MLL Legal as lead counsel.
Dilmun said: “It’s tremendously exciting to work on ground-breaking blockchain projects in the fast-evolving fintech world, working collaboratively with the client, its advisers and various teams at the JFSC on the first tokenisation platform launched in Jersey.
“This project will help evolve Jersey’s blockchain regulatory framework, keeping Jersey at the forefront of fintech work involving financial services.”
Roberto Klein, Co-founder at Backed Finance AG commented: "We explored a number of different jurisdictions to establish our new issuer and are delighted to launch our Jersey business. This will allow us to offer flexible tokenisation solutions for both public securities and private investment products - bringing TradFi to DeFi.
“We value the advice and support from Walkers Global as part of the regulatory approval process. We look forward to working with Cavendish and our other service providers to ensure we continue to grow our tokenisation business in Jersey and beyond."
Walkers in Jersey has a leading cross-practice debt capital markets, fintech, regulatory, corporate and investment funds team who are at the cutting edge of innovative financial services products including AMCs, collateralised loan obligations (CLOs), note issuers, securitisation vehicles, and "tokenisation" issuers and platforms. Our Jersey team works seamlessly with colleagues in the Cayman Islands, Ireland, Bermuda, London, Guernsey and our other four offices, making us well-placed to advise clients on novel projects such as this.
