The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has partnered with financial regulatory authorities from Japan, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom to advance digital asset pilots within the financial sector.
The collaboration brings together the Financial Services Agency of Japan (FSA), the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA), and the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
It will allow authorities to hold discussions about digital asset law, policy, and accounting, and promote cross-border marketable digital assets, regulatory sandbox digital asset experiments, and regulatory-industry information sharing.
MAS’ deputy managing director of markets and development, Leong Sing Chiong, said the partnership shows a desire among policymakers to deepen understanding of the opportunities and risks arising from digital asset innovation.
The hope is to promote the development of common standards and regulatory frameworks to support cross-border interoperability and sustainable growth of the digital asset ecosystem, he added.
Under the central bank’s initiative - Project Guardian, MAS has collaborated with 15 financial institutions to carry out industry pilots on asset tokenisation in fixed income, foreign exchange, and asset management products.
According to MAS, as pilots grow in scale and sophistication, there is a need for closer cross-border collaboration among policymakers and regulators.
It has established a Project Guardian policymaker group comprising FSA, FCA and FINMA, and the policymaker group aims to:
- Advance discussions on legal, policy and accounting treatment of digital assets
- Identify potential risks and possible gaps in existing policies and legislation relevant to tokenised solutions
- Explore the development of common standards for the design of digital asset networks and market best practices across various jurisdictions
- Promote high standards of interoperability to support cross-border digital assets development
- Facilitate industry pilots for digital assets through regulatory sandboxes, where applicable
- Promote knowledge sharing among regulators and industry.
