The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) launched an innovative project to collaborate with Japan, Switzerland, and the UK financial regulators. This partnership aims to allow in-depth discussions about digital asset law, policy, and accounting. It also promotes cross-border marketable digital assets, regulatory sandbox digital asset experiments, and regulatory-industry information sharing.
MAS Joins Forces with FSA, FINMA, and FCA for Digital Asset Pilots
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is partnering with the Financial Services Agency of Japan (FSA), the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA), and the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to lead digital asset pilot initiatives in fixed-income, foreign exchange, and asset management.
As part of “Project Guardian,” MAS and fifteen financial institutions have conducted tokenization experiments for asset management, foreign currency, and fixed-income products. These studies show that tokenization can reduce market and transaction costs, emphasizing the need for international policymakers and regulators to coordinate to meet the growing needs and complexities of pilot efforts. Thus, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has formed Project Guardian, a policymaker collaboration with delegates from the FSA, FCA, and FINMA.
MAS Deputy Managing Director Emphasizes Significance of Global Partnership
The group aims to advance digital asset legal, policy, and accounting discourse. This includes questions about digital assets’ legal status, regulatory structure, and financial statement treatment. It assesses risks present in the digital asset ecosystem. This also involves identifying regulatory gaps, risks, and loopholes in tokenized solution policies and laws.
It assesses the feasibility of global digital asset network structure standards and identifies the best business practices for universal application across all relevant jurisdictions. Standardization is crucial to ensure seamless digital asset exchange across countries, the group will advocate strong interoperability standards to build digital assets that may be used internationally.
The group will help build digital asset industry pilot initiatives in regulatory sandboxes where appropriate. Innovative ideas can be tested and evaluated in regulatory sandboxes. The policymaker group prioritizes regulatory and industry knowledge sharing. Collaborative approaches help understand digital asset opportunities and challenges.
Mr. Leong Sing Chiong, MAS’s Deputy Managing Director for Markets and Development, stressed the importance of this partnership and policymakers’ commitment to understanding digital asset innovation’s risks and opportunities. This collaboration aims to create global standards and regulatory frameworks for cross-border digital asset trading. This will help the digital asset ecosystem grow sustainably.
