Deutsche Bank has joined the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s (MAS) Project Guardian to explore asset tokenization applications in regulated financial markets.

Project Guardian is a multi-year project involving global policymakers (including the United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority, Switzerland’s Financial Market Supervisory Authority and Japan’s Financial Services Agency) and financial services industry representatives. The collaborative initiative seeks to test the feasibility of applications in asset tokenization and decentralized finance while managing risks to financial stability and integrity.

As part of the asset and wealth management work stream, Deutsche Bank will test an open architecture and interoperable blockchain platform to service tokenized and digital funds. It will then propose protocol standards and identify best practices to contribute to industry progress.

Anand Rengarajan, head of securities services for Asia-Pacific and the Middle East and global head of sales, says: “We are committed to being a leader in driving the development and adoption of digital assets in Singapore and Asia-Pacific. Contributing to Project Guardian will bolster our efforts to help shape the new frontier of asset servicing, and strongly position us to contribute to industry progress, and not only anticipate our clients’ needs but exceed their expectations.”

Boon-Hiong Chan, Deutsche Bank’s Asia-Pacific head of securities and technology advocacy and industry applied innovation lead, will be the bank’s lead for Project Guardian.

The bank will closely work with Memento Blockchain, a decentralized finance specialist, with whom it previously executed the proof-of-concept DAMA 1 in 2023. DAMA, which stands for Digital Assets Management Access, sought to provide a more efficient, secure, and flexible solution for digital fund management and investment servicing. In their latest collaboration, Deutsche Bank and Memento aim to deliver DAMA 2. Interop Labs, the initial developer of the Axelar network (a Web3 interoperability platform), will also join the bank’s efforts.