7th July 2020, Hong Kong: Hex Trust, the leading provider of bank-grade custody for digital assets, is delighted to announce the appointment of Colin Brooks to its Advisory Board. Colin brings over 30 years of unparalleled experience, knowledge, and connections building institutional custody and securities businesses, including serving as HSBC’s Head of Custody and Clearing for seven years, heading up a global business that covered over 50 markets in six continents.
Colin was primarily responsible for building HSBC’s Custody business from a small team to the biggest and most dominant sub-custodian in Asia. He was closely involved in all aspects of HSBC’s securities business evolution, from a custody business operating in six individual markets in Asia, to its current form as a global business within HSBC’s corporate and institutional banking division. Colin won the recognition ‘Custodian Banker of the Year’ during The Asset Triple A Asset Servicing Awards 2011 for his contribution to the development of the custody business in Asia. As Hex Trust continues to scale its banking and financial institutional client base across Asia and Europe, Colin’s experience and guidance will be invaluable to its expansion and to ensure Hex Trust continues to build the industry’s leading platform for bank-grade digital asset custody. Colin was also appointed as a Senior Advisor to Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) to the securities business and then as Vice Chairman Securities Services based in Singapore, where his responsibilities included re-shaping the leadership team and driving forward a series of key change initiatives across multiple areas to effectively re-launch the SCB securities business.
Alessio Quaglini, CEO of Hex Trust:
“Colin joins Hex Trust at a critical juncture for the entire digital assets industry. A new wave of adoption is taking place, spearheaded by banks, central banks, and other financial institutions, which is transforming the market and the way service providers operate.
We cannot assume that the whole financial market will embrace from day one solutions designed by technology companies. The process has to be a two-way, with financial institutions sharing their expertise and providing inputs on their pain points and challenges in their business models. Technology companies, like Hex Trust, therefore need to build solutions that both address these challenges whilst complying with financial institutions’ requirements and integrating within their technology and operating models.
Colin’s extensive experience in custody and securities services accumulated in leading financial institutions will play a critical role to develop and shape Hex Trust’s service offerings to banks looking at entering the digital assets market.”
Colin Brooks, Advisor to Hex Trust:
“I’m excited to join the Hex Trust Advisory Board to help the business scale, optimize its custody platform and operations, and onboard more banks and financial institutions as clients. As the banking sector adopts digital assets, they need specialist platforms like Hex Trust, which are specifically built to address their complex compliance needs, internal processes, and security requirements. Using my years in the traditional custody and securities industries, I’ll be aiming to pass on my guidance and experience to take Hex Trust to the next level to make sure that the platforms we build correctly address both financial institutions’ needs and the requirements of the highly regulated markets which they operate in. I’m looking forward to being part of Hex Trust’s journey and participating in the revolution of blockchain technology reshaping the infrastructure of financial markets.”
Colin has over 30 years of experience in the securities industry, including 30 years in Asia. Colin started in the industry as a project manager with the London Stock Exchange in the mid-1980s, during and after the ‘Big Bang’ period. He then moved to Hong Kong in 1990 as part of a small team that established HSBC Securities Services, taking on several regional and global roles as the business expanded in scope and geographically. His last role being Global Head of Custody and Clearing from 2008 to 2015, heading up a global business that covered over 50 markets in 6 continents.
Colin moved to Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) in 2015, first as Senior Advisor to the securities business and then as Vice Chairman Securities Services based in Singapore, where his responsibilities included re-shaping the leadership team and driving forward a series of key change initiatives across multiple areas to effectively re-launch the SCB securities business. Colin retired from SCB in 2020 after the successful completion of the re-launch. Colin has worked in a number of securities industry roles, including as a member of SWIFT’s Securities Council and their Asia Pacific Advisory Group, a Board member of the International Securities Services Association (ISSA) and has been a regular speaker at industry conferences and contributor to industry articles. Colin has a BA (Hons) in Linguistic Science from the University of Reading, UK, and also attended Universität Tübingen in Germany.
Hex Trust is fully licensed, insured, and the leading provider of bank-grade custody for digital assets. Led by financial services experts and veteran banking technologists, Hex Trust has built a proprietary platform — Hex Safe — that delivers an infrastructure custody solution for banks, financial institutions, asset managers and exchanges to safely, securely, and efficiently operate in the digital asset ecosystem. Through Hex Safe, clients can access liquidity providers, exchanges, and lending & staking platforms, which allows custody clients to seamlessly access third-party services while holding assets in our highly-secure and regulated platform.
The Hex Safe platform has been designed with a comprehensive compliance-first approach, with the highest level of security in the market, scalable for high transaction volumes, and providing seamless connectivity to third-party service providers in the ecosystem. ZeroKey, a proprietary technology, enables seamless transacting and fast access to assets stored on multiple blockchains while maintaining the highest levels of security of cold storage solutions.
As a registered Trust Company under the Hong Kong Trust Ordinance and holding a Trust or Company Service Provider (TCSP) license under the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Ordinance, Hex Trust offers a truly end-to-end digital asset servicing solution. Hex Trust has offices in Hong Kong, Singapore, and is establishing a presence in Europe with Germany the first location. To learn more, please visit: www.hextrust.com.
