ANZ has become the latest bank to join the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) in its multi-year Project Guardian initiative, which explores the application of asset tokenization in financial markets. The Australian bank will partner with Chainlink Labs and ADDX to investigate the interoperability of private blockchains for the exchange of tokenized real-world assets, such as commercial paper.
Nigel Dobson, banking services lead at ANZ, emphasized the challenges faced by tokenized asset markets:
“Tokenized asset markets are highly fragmented, with assets developed across different blockchains that are not natively interoperable. This can limit adoption and complicate integration for financial institutions.”
ANZ aims to demonstrate its emerging Digital Assets capabilities, such as its A$DC (Australian Dollar stablecoin), to support customers in moving goods and capital across regions.
ANZ joins several other global financial institutions already involved in Project Guardian, including Deutsche Bank, Citi, Fidelity, OCBC, and JPMorgan. These organizations are conducting pilot projects focused on asset tokenization in fixed income, foreign exchange, and asset management products.