The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Singapore’s central bank and financial regulator, has said it will start working with Japan, Switzerland, and the UK on cross-border cryptocurrency-related projects. On October 30, the MAS disclosed its collaborations with the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the Financial Services Agency of Japan (FSA), and the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA). Joint digital asset pilots, with a special emphasis on fixed income, foreign currency, and asset management products, are the goal of the cooperation.
These collaborative initiatives are an outgrowth of Project Guardian, an asset tokenization initiative started in Singapore in 2022. Under Project Guardian, the MAS worked with fifteen financial institutions to test asset tokenization, showing significant promise for improved transaction efficiency.
As the pilots grow in scope and complexity, the MAS has formed a Project Guardian policymaker group in recognition of the need for more significant cross-border cooperation between regulators and policymakers. Representatives from the FCA, FINMA, and FSA are included in this.
The new team’s primary responsibility will be to assess any hazards and legal ambiguities related to tokenized solutions and digital assets. It also seeks to create common guidelines for creating digital asset networks and identifying industry best practises among various legal systems. They also have interoperability, regulatory sandboxes, and education on the digital currency space on their agenda.
The partnerships imply a strong willingness by policymakers such as the MAS to better grasp the potential and risks posed by digital asset innovation. Leong Sing Chiong, MAS Deputy Managing Director of Markets and Development, stated, “With this partnership, we hope to promote the development of common standards and regulatory frameworks that can better support cross-border interoperability as well as sustainable growth of the digital asset ecosystem.”
A collaborative test of cross-border trading and settlement of wholesale central bank digital currencies was conducted by MAS, the Bank for International Settlements, the central banks of France, and Switzerland in September 2023 as part of its continued cooperation with international financial authorities.
