PANews reported on November 15 that the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced that it is working with the financial industry to expand the asset tokenization plan and develop the basic capabilities to expand the tokenization market. MAS is launching a new fund workflow within the Project Guardian industry group, focusing on the local issuance of _iable Capital Company (VCC) funds on digital asset networks, with the aim of addressing tax, policy, and legal issues while increasing distribution channels for asset managers. MAS will work with the Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA) to better assess the opportunities and risks of adopting digitally native VCC fund shares.
Project Guardian's industry group, which consists of 17 financial institutions (FIs), launched five more industry pilots to test promising use cases for asset tokenization. This could pave the way for integration across the capital markets value chain, including listing, distribution, trading, settlement, and asset servicing.
Citigroup, T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc., and Fidelity International are testing institutional-grade mechanisms to efficiently price and execute bilateral digital asset transactions and explore real-time post-trade reporting and analysis of digital asset transactions. BNY Mellon and OCBC Bank are experimenting with cross-border foreign exchange payment solutions to enable secure, interoperable payment solutions across heterogeneous networks. Ant Group is experimenting with a treasury management solution to enhance global liquidity management funds. The solution will enable real-time multi-currency clearing and settlement through a global financial hub in Singapore that supports more than 40 currencies. Franklin Templeton is exploring the issuance of a tokenized money market fund through a variable capital company (VCC) structure that leverages a network of digital assets to maintain a record of fund shares. JPMorgan Chase and Apollo are working together to use digital assets to enable more seamless investment and management of discretionary portfolios and alternative assets, automated portfolio rebalancing, and mass customization. This will save time and reduce manual processes for asset servicing.
