The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has published a report proposing a framework for designing open, interoperable networks for digital assets.
The report Enabling Open & Interoperable Networks was jointly developed with the Bank for International Settlements’ (BIS) Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructure (CPMI), with contributions from DBS Bank, JP Morgan, HSBC, SBI Digital Asset Holdings, Standard Chartered and UOB.
The report also considers how the CPMI and International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) principles for financial market infrastructures can be applied to evolving models of digital asset networks, taking reference from industry pilots launched under Project Guardian.
Project Guardian is MAS’ collaborative initiative with the financial industry to test the feasibility of applications in asset tokenisation and decentralised finance.
MAS also announced an expansion of Project Guardian to test the potential of asset tokenisation across more financial asset classes.
To support this, MAS has established the Project Guardian Industry Group, comprising several financial institutions (FIs) which will lead industry pilots in asset and wealth management; fixed income; and foreign exchange.
The FIs are ADDX, Citi, DBS Bank, JP Morgan, HSBC, SBI Digital Asset, Schroder Investment Management, SGX Group, Standard Chartered, UBS AG, UBS Asset Management, and UOB.
The regulator has also welcomed the Japan Financial Services Agency (JFSA) as the first overseas financial regulator to join Project Guardian.
Leong Sing Chiong, Deputy Managing Director (Markets and Development), MAS, said,
“While MAS strongly discourages and seeks to restrict speculation in cryptocurrencies, we see much potential for value creation and efficiency gains in the digital asset ecosystem. This is why we are actively collaborating with the industry to foster a responsible and innovative digital asset ecosystem.
As we enter this new phase of Project Guardian, we look forward to collaborating with fellow policymakers and industry practitioners to jointly develop effective frameworks to guide the sound development of future financial networks.”