This panel discussion aims to explore the opportunities and benefits of digital assets, how end-to-end capabilities and services required will need to be provided by an integrated digital asset ecosystem with robust risk management capabilities, and how MAS provides an important conducive environment and framework for such activities in Singapore.

Digital asset and tokenisation has the potential to transform capital markets, allowing for new value capture. The road to digital assets (e.g. tokenised securities, natively issued structured products) becoming mainstream will require strong business fundamentals, wide participation by market participants and partnership with regulatory bodies to deepen understanding on the implications. Complementary to these factors is the need for collaborative effort by the industry and policymakers globally, avoiding the fragmentation of liquidity and supporting the development of a common framework in digital assets internationally.

Join this panel to hear from the public and private entities across Japan, Singapore and Switzerland on their collaboration in an industry pilot on securities based asset swap involving tokenised fixed Income products. They will also share the focus of the pilot, the role of trust anchors, the policymaker view, and opportunities/challenges that lie ahead for digital assets.

Tokenisation of financial and real economy assets is estimated to accelerate the pace of digitalisation and impact the broader economy beyond financial services. Despite good progress in asset tokenisation experimentations and pilots, the lack of FMI compliant digital infrastructure which financial institutions can use to execute digital asset transactions prevents financial institutions’ ability to deploy digital assets at scale.

This roundtable discusses the importance for multilateral platforms to be powered by open and interoperable networks amongst global banks and regulators. Moderated by Tommaso Mancini-Griffoli, Division Chief in the Monetary and Capital Markets Department at the International Monetary Fund and Alan Lim, Head of the FinTech Infrastructure Office at the MAS. 

This roundtable will discuss the role of digital assets in expanding the opportunities and value capture for capital markets as well as the learnings in the various asset classes.

Project Guardian facilitates responsible digital asset innovation while managing risks to financial stability and integrity. This session highlights Project Guardian industry pilots across asset classes (e.g. fixed income, asset and wealth management and foreign exchange). This includes native issuance of Variable Capital Company (VCC) fund, asset-backed security tokens, digitally native issuance of structured notes, alternative assets in rebalancing model portfolios, native issuance of digital bonds with financed with repo facility, and on-chain pricing and execution.

Flow of events:
1. Alternative assets in rebalancing model portfolios
2. Asset-backed security token with underlying trade receivables
3. Cross-border FX payment
4. Digitally native issuance of structured notes
5. On-chain pricing
6. On-chain Real World Assets
7. Repurchasing Agreement (Repo) with natively issued digital bonds
8. Tokenised investment vehicles

Despite good progress in asset tokenisation experimentations and pilots, it has been identified that the lack of an open, unified digital infrastructure which financial institutions can use to execute digital asset transactions is limiting financial institutions’ ability to deploy digital assets at scale. This panel will discuss the case of a foundational digital infrastructure that is open and accessible for regulated financial institutions to develop, deploy and use applications for financial industry use-cases. This session will highlight key principles and capabilities of such a digital financial network backbone as well as prevailing mechanisms to achieve interoperability between existing and new financial infrastructures. 

MAS launched Project Orchid in 2021 to explore the technical feasibility and infrastructure required for a digital Singapore Dollar. The project started by examining potential use cases for digital money and the infrastructure that would be required to support it.

This session showcases multiple industry-led digital money pilots and the use of purpose-bound money, such as programmable rewards, escrow arrangement, government grant disbursement. The session will also cover the singleness of money and embedded policy compliance in digital money. 

Flow of events:
1. Programmable rewards by Singapore Pitstop Industry Pilot
2. Ecommerce - PBM for Escrow arrangement
3. Fungibility trial for Digital Singapore Dollar
4. Government Grants
5. Institutional PBM with payment controls for deposit token transferability