ANZ has become the first Australian bank to join Project Guardian, an initiative led by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).

The project aims to explore broader access to tokenised real-world assets, such as commercial paper, in financial markets.

ANZ will collaborate with Chainlink Labs and ADDX, a Singapore-based private market exchange platform, to test the interoperability of these assets between different blockchains.

This will involve exploring how ANZ’s stablecoin, A$DC, can be used to facilitate the movement of goods and capital across the region.

Project Guardian, launched in 2022, brings together policymakers and the financial industry to enhance the efficiency and liquidity of financial markets through asset tokenisation.

Nigel Dobson, ANZ Banking Services Lead, said,

“Tokenised asset markets are highly fragmented, with tokenised assets and related services developed across different blockchains that are not natively interoperable. This can limit the adoption of tokenised assets, while making the integration process for financial institutions complex.

We are pleased to join Project Guardian and look forward to demonstrating how our emerging digital assets capabilities, such as A$DC, can be used to support our customers to move goods and capital across the region.”

Mark Evans, ANZ Singapore Country Head, said,

“ANZ has been in Singapore for 50 years and over that time, our customers have benefited from the bank having access to a regulatory environment that truly fosters innovation.

We’re pleased to join Project Guardian and play a role in fast-tracking the development of a stable, secure digital asset ecosystem which will be essential to meeting the future needs of our customers across the region.”

Featured image credit: Edited from Freepik