Singapore and German central banks collaborate on cross-border digital asset settlements

Singapore and Germany’s central bank have agreed on a collaboration involving cross-border digital asset settlements between the two countries.
Summary

• The Monetary Authority of Singapore and Deutsche Bundesbank have signed an MoU to jointly develop cross-border digital asset settlement solutions aimed at making international transactions faster and more cost-effective.
• Building upon Singapore’s Project Guardian initiative, the partnership seeks to establish universal standards for tokenized assets, payments, and securities to enhance global financial interoperability.

According to the press release, Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Deutsche Bundesbank agree to join forces on cross-border digital asset settlements in hopes of advancing international financial transactions.

The agreement was signed by MAS Deputy Managing Director in Markets and Development Leong Sing Chiong alongside Deutsche Bundesbank Executive Board member Burkhard Balz and Director General of Digital Euro Alexandra Hachmeister during the country’s annual FinTech Festival.

Based on the MoU, MAS and Deutsche Bundesbank will team up on a number of technological and financial initiatives. The two central banks would work on developing new settlement solutions with the goal of making cross-border transactions cheaper and faster between the two countries.

The agreement would also see the central banks promoting universal standards for cross-border payments, foreign exchanges and the liquidity of securities. The standards would be used to regulate tokenized real-world assets to improve interoperability between different crypto platforms.

MAS Deputy Managing Director, Leong Sing Chiong, said that he hopes the central bank’s partnership with Deutsche Bundesbank will serve to enhance financial connectivity between the two countries to bring benefits to individual traders, institutions and financial markets. It is also poised to become the foundation for future digital infrastructure.

Echoing Leong’s sentiment, Executive Board member Burkhard Balz said that the partnership involving the central banks is meant to foster technological innovation and introduce new standards for international payments and securities transactions.

Singapore’s Project Guardian

The partnership between MAS and Deutsche Bundesbank will build upon the existing Project Guardian initiative, which is a collaborative programme led by MAS in partnership involving several participants from the financial industry.

Established formally in 2022, Project Guardian involves more than 40 financial institutions, industry groups and regulators across several jurisdictions. The programme was launched with the aim of speeding up tokenization of financial assets and building a digital-asset ecosystem in Singapore.

Back in July 2025, the U.K and Singapore agreed on similar collaboration, signing an agreement that would deepen collaboration regarding the development of digital finance, digital innovation, sustainable finance, capital markets and international regulatory developments.