Deutsche Bank has joined asset tokenisation initiative Project Guardian – dedicated to testing the feasibility of applications in regulated financial markets – as part of the asset and wealth management workstream.
Mike Clarke
Anand Rengarajan, head of securities services for Asia Pacific and the Middle East and global head of sales said: “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.”
Specifically, Deutsche Bank – as part of the asset and wealth management workstream – will “test an open architecture and interoperable blockchain platform to service tokenised and digital funds […] then propose protocol standards and identify best practice to contribute to industry progress”.
‘Project Guardian’ is a collaborative initiative between the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s (MAS) and other financial market players which “seeks to test the feasibility of applications in asset tokenisation and DeFi, while managing risks to financial stability and integrity”.
Other financial market players involved in the multi-year project include global policymakers such as the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), Switzerland’s Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA), and Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA), as well as other financial services financial services institutions such as BNY Mellon, Citi and JP Morgan.
Deutsche Bank’s Asia Pacific head of securities and technology advocacy and industry applied innovation lead, Boon-Hiong Chan, is set to be the bank’s lead for Project Guardian.
Mike Clarke, global head of securities services product management, said: “Collaborating with leading fintechs and digital natives is key to engineering technologically advanced asset servicing products. This will not only enhance our competitiveness but empower us to create more value.
“Through Project Guardian, and our work on relevant standardisation areas, we hope to elevate the sound and tangible benefits that technology and collaboration can bring to clients and the industry.”