HSBC is pleased to partner with Marketnode, a SGX Group and Temasek joint venture and digital markets infrastructure operator, and UOB in order “to pilot fully digital issuance of wealth management products as part of a Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS)-led collaboration on asset tokenisation, Project Guardian.”
Announced by MAS, HSBC, Marketnode and UOB will “collaborate in the build out of an end-to-end, issuance-to-distribution distributed ledger technology (DLT)-enabled wealth management product infrastructure, paving the way for the expansion of inclusive wealth management products and a future-ready infrastructure for Singapore’s S$5.4 trillion asset management industry.”
Using DLT, the infrastructure aims “to fully digitalize the wealth management product value chain which is currently paper-based, from issuance, securitization and distribution to asset servicing of products such as structured notes and actively managed certificates (AMCs).”
The use of DLT will potentially “halve the time to manufacture and distribute products and funds, lower issuance and servicing costs, and enhance product accessibility and transparency.”
Richard Godfrey, Global Co-Head, Securities Services and Securities Financing, HSBC, said:
“HSBC’s participation in Project Guardian is a continuation of our efforts to collaborate with industry partners and shape the development of an innovative and responsible digital asset ecosystem in Singapore. We’re thrilled to team up again with Marketnode to take the tokenisation of financial and real economy assets one step further into wealth products. This project builds on our capabilities in distributed ledger technology and presents an opportunity to introduce a new phase for accessible wealth management products.”
Rehan Ahmed, General Manager, Marketnode, said:
“Marketnode is proud to collaborate again with our long-standing partners, HSBC and UOB, in breaking new ground in the global digital asset arena. Indeed, we hope that our work on Project Guardian will continue to showcase the transformative capabilities of digital markets infrastructure and strengthen Singapore’s proposition as a leading international financial centre in Asia. We strongly believe that the disruptive potential of tokenisation will enable new business opportunities, create value across the value chain and make wealth management more democratized.”
Project Guardian explores “the economic potential and value-adding use cases of asset tokenisation in the context of financial services.”
Tokenization is “the process of digitally representing assets through smart contracts on DLT with Singapore leading the charge on tokenization efforts of traditional financial assets.”
HSBC is also “a key partner in Fundnode, an industry-wide investment funds utility owned and operated by Marketnode, to improve fund settlement efficiency in Singapore.”
Singapore recently “announced its Financial Services Industry Transformation Map, which outlined that digitalizing financial infrastructure and shaping future of financial networks as core pillars for developing Singapore as a leading financial centre in Asia.”