Schemes and Initiatives
 Published Date: 19 October 2022

Project Guardian

Project Guardian is a collaborative initiative with policymakers and the financial industry that seeks to test the feasibility of applications in asset tokenisation and DeFi while managing risks to financial stability and integrity.

 

Project Guardian Partners


Objectives

  • Industry pilots with traditional financial institutions and FinTechs to understand opportunities and risk areas.
  • Assess longer-term transformational impact and aim for safe development of ecosystem using industry pilots and learnings as a reference.
  • Establish policy guidelines and framework. Define acceptable governance model or accountability; Technical standards for regulated DeFi.

  

Focus Areas

  1. Open and Interoperable Networks

    Explore open, interoperable networks that enable digital assets to be traded across platforms and liquidity.

  2. Trust Anchors

    Establish a trusted environment through a common trust layer of independent trust anchors with risk management discipline to screen and onboard entities.

  3. Asset Tokenisation

    Examine the representation of securities in the form of digital bearer assets and tokenised deposits issued by financial institution.

  4. Institutional Grade Protocols

    Study the introduction of regulatory safeguards and controls into financial protocols to mitigate against market manipulation and operational risk.

 

Collaboration Areas

    Onboarding Icon
    Live Industry Pilot
    Pilot with traditional financial institutions and FinTechs in Singapore and other jurisdiction to understand opportunities and risk areas.


    Policy Development

    Develop rulebook, governance model, and reviewing legal and regulatory frameworks for tokenised assets.


    Technology Standards

    Develop technical standards, i.e. Trust Anchors, Open networks, institutional grade Defi.

Report

Enabling Open & Interoperable Networks (17.1 MB) report proposes a framework for designing open interoperable digital asset networks. The report was jointly developed with subject matter experts at the Bank for International Settlements’ (BIS) Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructure (CPMI), with contributions from participating financial institutions

 

The Interlinking Networks (1.07 MB) report proposes a common model for linking digital asset networks implemented on diverse ledger technologies and describes common archetypes for the issuance, distribution and transfer of digital assets and introduces a reference model for cross-network exchanges. The report was jointly developed in collaboration with the Financial Industry, FinTechs and Industry Groups.

  

Current Pilots

Asset & Wealth Management
  • UBS Asset Management has launched a pilot to explore the native issuance of Variable Capital Company (VCC) fund on digital asset networks. This aims to help to enhance fund distribution and facilitate improved secondary market trading of VCC fund shares, thus realising industry-wide operational efficiencies. As part of this initiative, proof-of-concept technical tests have been successfully conducted with SBI Digital Markets.
  • Schroders and Calastone are progressing their work on a tokenised investment vehicle pilot, which will securely capture and maintain records of an investment portfolio directly onto distributed ledger technology (DLT)/ blockchain. The pilot will apply the security attributes inherent in DLT to evolve traditional forms of book-keeping and demonstrate proof of ownership through tokens. HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank are exploring the integration of safeguarding, servicing, and on-chain governance.
  • J.P. Morgan and Apollo are collaborating to demonstrate how tokenisation and smart contracts could enable the seamless investment and ongoing management of discretionary portfolios, including Alternative Assets, through normalised subscription/redemption processing, automated portfolio rebalancing and customisation at scale. This initiative will further demonstrate how holistic portfolios could be built across the fragmented landscape of tokenised funds through interoperability solutions across multiple networks.
  • Franklin Templeton is launching a pilot to explore the issuance of tokenised money market fund through a Variable Capital Company (VCC) structure, which utilises digital asset networks to maintain the records of fund shares. The tokenised fund will make investment much easier for investors and aims to offer higher security, greater transparency, lower minimum subscription cost, faster processing as well as increased efficiencies.
Fixed Income & Foreign Exchange
Citi, T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc. and Fidelity International successfully tested institutional-grade mechanisms to price and execute bilateral digital asset trades efficiently, and explored real-time post-trade reporting and analytics of digital asset trades.
Foreign Exchange
  • The Bank of New York Mellon (BNY Mellon) and Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation Limited (OCBC) are trialing a cross-border FX payment solution using smart contracts which create blockchain interoperability. The initiative will demonstrate the use of digital ledgers to increase speed and efficiency of cross-border settlement and enable secure, interoperable payment solutions across independent bank-owned infrastructure.
  • Ant International is launching a treasury management solution to enhance liquidity management funding globally. This solution will enable real-time multi-currency clearing and settlement through their global treasury centre in Singapore which supports over 40 currencies.

Find out more about our partners and their involvement here (124.5 KB)

For More Information

Please email FinTech_Sandbox@mas.gov.sg .

 

Things to note:

Members of the public should note that:

  • MAS and companies participating in MAS’ initiatives will not ask for your personal banking information, security login credentials or private keys to digital wallets.
  • MAS advises the public to be alert and wary of unsolicited calls or messaging which offer deals that seem too good to be true; request personal information; give instructions to transfer funds to a third party account or offer investments into projects.

If you encounter any suspected scams related to digital assets involving MAS, please DO NOT transfer any funds, and report the matter to MAS.

For impersonation scams involving institutions regulated by MAS or phishing scams, please make a police report via the Police Hotline at 1800-255-0000, or submit it online at www.police.gov.sg/iwitness .