Securitize Adds Ex-IMF Payments Veteran Sunil Sabharwal to Board as SPAC Listing Nears

New updates have been reported about Securitize.

Securitize, Inc., which plans to go public via a business combination with Cantor Equity Partners II, has appointed former U.S. IMF Alternate Executive Director and payments executive Sunil Sabharwal to its board, reinforcing its governance and policy depth as tokenization markets institutionalize. Sabharwal’s background leading cross-border payments firms and shaping global financial policy is expected to support Securitize’s push to position onchain securities as core market infrastructure.

His appointment comes as Securitize, a leading real-world asset tokenization platform with more than $4 billion in assets under management, scales regulated trading, transfer agency, and fund services infrastructure across both the U.S. and EU. CEO Carlos Domingo said Sabharwal’s experience at GE Capital, First Data/Western Union, and at the IMF will help guide the company’s next growth phase as tokenization adoption accelerates among asset managers and institutional investors.

Sabharwal, who also sits on the boards of Thunes and Tookitaki and advises Blackstone’s growth equity fund, cited tokenization as a structural shift in global markets that broadens investor access, describing Securitize as a combination of regulatory rigor and advanced technology. His public-sector credentials, including receiving the U.S. Treasury’s Distinguished Service Award, are likely to be relevant as Securitize navigates evolving digital-asset regulation and works with policymakers on onchain market standards.

The board move coincides with Securitize’s pending merger with CEPT, a SPAC sponsored by an affiliate of Cantor Fitzgerald, under which the combined company, Securitize Holdings, Inc., is expected to list on NYSE or Nasdaq under the ticker SECZ in the first half of 2026, subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals. Management highlights the transaction as a way to capitalize on growing tokenization demand, while warning that completion and market performance remain sensitive to redemptions, listing approvals, regulatory shifts, and broader volatility in digital assets.

Securitize operates a vertically integrated stack of regulated entities, including a U.S. broker-dealer and ATS, an SEC-registered transfer agent, an exempt reporting adviser, and a fund administration business, plus a fully authorized EU investment firm running a Trading & Settlement System under the DLT Pilot Regime. This cross-jurisdictional licensing footprint makes Securitize one of the few platforms able to support large asset managers, including Apollo, BlackRock, BNY, Hamilton Lane, KKR, and VanEck, in issuing and trading tokenized funds and securities within established compliance frameworks.

For executives and investors, Sabharwal’s addition signals a continued tilt toward institutional-scale governance and policy engagement as Securitize prepares to operate as a public company in a tightly scrutinized segment. The company’s outlook is leveraged to regulatory clarity, institutional adoption of tokenized products, and its ability to convert its regulatory and infrastructure advantage into higher transaction volumes, recurring issuer relationships, and expanded AUM over the next phase of market development.