Deutsche Bank to explore asset tokenisation applications as part of MAS’ Project Guardian
Deutsche Bank has announced it has joined Project Guardian, a multi-year initiative led by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to explore the application of decentralised finance (DeFi) and asset tokenisation across financial markets.
Deutsche Bank joins MAS’ Project Guardian
Project Guardian was launched by MAS in May 2022 and seeks to develop and pilot tokenisation use cases across its four focus areas of interoperable networks, independent trust anchors, institutional grade DeFi protocols, and the use of tokenised deposits issued by deposit-taking institutions on public blockchains.
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in the UK, the Financial Services Agency of Japan (FSA), and the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) previously announced their participation in the project last October.
As its latest supporter, Deutsche Bank will contribute to the project’s asset and wealth management workstream, and says it intends to “test an open architecture and interoperable blockchain platform to service tokenised and digital funds”, while also working to propose new protocol standards and best practices.
“Through Project Guardian, and our work on relevant standardisation areas, we hope to elevate the sound and tangible benefits that technology and collaboration can bring to clients and the industry,” comments Mike Clarke, global head of securities services product management at Deutsche Bank.
The bank is to collaborate with Axelar network developer Interop Labs and blockchain services start-up Memento Blockchain as part of its exploration, having previously worked with the latter to deliver the Project Digital Assets Management Access 1 (DAMA) proof-of-concept last year, part-funded by a grant from MAS.
DAMA 1 culminated in a digital fund investment servicing and open architecture platform capable of adhering to differing custody models and funds, with the partners to now reapply their technologies to deliver DAMA 2 for Project Guardian, although the exact timeline of this initiative has not been disclosed.
Boon-Hiong Chan, Asia Pacific head of securities and technology advocacy and industry applied innovation at Deutsche Bank, has been assigned as the bank’s lead for the project.
