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Singapore Accelerates Tokenised Finance: From Project Guardian to Global Settlement Infrastructure

· Regulation · MarketsFN Team

Singapore’s central bank has quietly but decisively stepped into the fast-lane of tokenised finance. Two recent developments illustrate how the MAS is transitioning from experimentation to infrastructure development — namely the MoU with the Deutsche Bundesbank and the ongoing rollout of Project Guardian.

On 13 November 2025, the MAS and the Deutsche Bundesbank signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) aimed at deepening cooperation on digital asset settlement and tokenised cross-border flows. Under the agreement, the two central banks will work on new settlement solutions to reduce costs and processing times of transfers between Germany and Singapore, and to promote common standards for tokenised assets, foreign exchange and securities flows. CoinStats+3FinTech Futures+3Financial IT+3

What makes this MoU significant is that it builds directly on the MAS’s earlier and broader initiative, Project Guardian — a sandbox-style collaborative effort between policymakers and industry to explore asset tokenisation, interoperable networks and new market infrastructure. Monetary Authority of Singapore+2Finextra Research+2

The Architecture of Change

Project Guardian was launched by MAS in 2022 with the objective of moving tokenisation from proof-of-concept into meaningful application. Its ambition: to enhance the liquidity and efficiency of financial markets through asset tokenisation, opening access to new value chains and enabling regulated institutions to act as “trust anchors” in distributed-ledger networks. VIXIO+1

Over time, Project Guardian has extended to involve more than 40 institutions and regulators from around the globe, and has produced pilots focusing on tokenised funds, fixed income, cross-border settlement and decentralized finance protocols. Finextra Research+1

By signing this MoU with the Deutsche Bundesbank, MAS is effectively saying: “This is no longer just a pilot. Let’s build real plumbing.” The focus on cross-border digital asset settlement means the parties will tackle one of the thorniest problems in tokenisation: how to make tokenised assets move seamlessly across jurisdictions, platforms and legacy infrastructures. Financial IT+1

Why It Matters

From a market perspective, this tandem of initiatives signals three shifts:

  1. Tokenisation is maturing: Instead of isolated experiments, regulators are moving toward infrastructure and standard-setting.
  2. Global coordination is increasingly essential: The MoU shows that national regulators view tokenised markets and cross-border settlement as collective issues, not just domestic experiments.
  3. Non-bank financial flows will evolve: By focusing on tokenised assets, securities flows and foreign exchange settlement, Singapore is aligning its regulatory strategy with the “asset ownership meets ledger ownership” future.

For participants — asset managers, banks, fintechs — the message is clear: Singapore wants to be a junction point in tokenised finance, with frameworks that support interoperability, regulatory clarity and scalability.

What Are the Key Elements?

Under the MoU, MAS and the Deutsche Bundesbank have set out to:

Meanwhile, Project Guardian itself comprises several workstreams. For example, the Fixed Income work-stream (led by the International Capital Market Association) is focused on Delivery-versus-Payment (DvP) settlement and custody for DLT-based debt securities. ICMA

Challenges Ahead

While the ambition is high, so are the obstacles. Among them:

What Investors and Market Participants Should Watch

For financial market participants, two areas stand out:

Investors should also observe any resulting shifts in:

The Bigger Picture

Ultimately, what MAS and Project Guardian illustrate is a shift in mindset: from digital assets as niche experiments to tokenised assets as upgrades to the core plumbing of finance. The MoU with Deutsche Bundesbank is a strong signal that Singapore is playing for the next phase — not only in Southeast Asia, but globally.

As tokenised finance moves toward production-grade infrastructure, the interplay between regulation, technology and market structure will determine whether promised benefits — cheaper settlement, greater liquidity, enhanced access — materialise. The year 2026 may well become a turning point.

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