MAS unveils plan to advance tokenisation in financial services

The plan focuses on four areas.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has unveiled plans to advance tokenisation in financial services.

To do so, MAS will form commercial networks to deepen liquidity for tokenised assets, develop an ecosystem of market infrastructures, foster industry frameworks for tokenised asset implementation, and enable access to a common settlement facility for these assets.

To achieve its goal of deepening the liquidity of tokenised assets through commercial network formation, MAS is facilitating the commercialisation of Project Guardian participants in a coordinated, networked manner.

“By connecting a broader set of participants’ products and services across multiple currencies and assets, greater improvements in capital raising, secondary trading, asset servicing and settlement of tokenised assets may be realised,” MAS said.

To develop an ecosystem of market infrastructures to facilitate seamless cross-border transactions, MAS will expand the scope of its e Global Layer One (GL1) initiative, enabling tokenised assets to be traded seamlessly across borders.

To support the expansion, Euroclear and HSBC have joined industry participants of Gl.

GL1 will set up a new market infrastructure working group with global financial market infrastructure providers, focused on establishing control principles for digital asset securities.

Meanwhile, Project Guardian has introduced the Guardian Fixed Income Framework (GFIF) and the Guardian Funds Framework (GFF) to promote wider acceptance of tokenised assets across financial institutions.

Additionally, MAS will facilitate access to common settlement assets, such as S$ wholesale CBDC, for financial institutions through the SGD Testnet, which features a settlement facility, programmability, and interoperability. 

The test network will be available to eligible institutions under Project Guardian and Project Orchid. Initial participants include DBS, OCBC, Standard Chartered, and UOB, targeting use cases in payments and securities settlement.

Patrick Lee, CEO, of Singapore and ASEAN, Standard Chartered, said its participation will enable the bank to “better serve our clients, facilitate seamless transactions and shape the future of the digital assets landscape.”

“For Standard Chartered, this partnership underscores our commitment to innovation and leadership in digital finance. We're excited to contribute to Singapore's growth as a leading digital finance hub.” Lee added.