MAS, SGX leverage blockchain tech to settle tokenised assets, Companies & Markets – THE BUSINESS TIMES

Mon, Nov 12, 2018 – 5:50 AM

Singapore

THE Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Singapore Exchange (SGX) have developed Delivery versus Payment (DvP) capabilities to settle tokenised assets across different blockchain platforms.

“This will help simplify post-trade processes and further shorten settlement cycles,” MAS and SGX said in a joint release. DvP is a settlement procedure where securities and monies are exchanged at the same time, so that delivery of securities only takes place if payment is made.

Developed together with technology partners Anquan, Deloitte and Nasdaq, the DvP prototypes have shown that financial institutions and corporate investors are able to carry out the exchange and final settlement of tokenised digital currencies and securities assets simultaneously on different blockchain platforms. This enhances efficiency and reduces settlement risks.

“The collaboration also demonstrated that DvP settlement finality, interledger interoperability and investor protection can be achieved through solutions designed and built on blockchain technology,” said MAS and SGX in the release.

They have jointly published an industry report, which details automating DvP settlement processes via Smart Contracts. Smart Contracts are self-executing contracts where the terms are coded into software and are executed when certain conditions are fulfilled.

Sopnendu Mohanty, chief fintech officer for MAS, highlighted: “The concept of asset tokenisation, as well as other learnings gleaned from this project, can potentially be applied to a broad spectrum of the economy, creating a whole new world of opportunities.”

Tinku Gupta, head of technology at SGX and project chair, added that SGX has applied for its first-ever technology patent based on the methodology developed.

Meanwhile, the third edition of the Singapore FinTech Festival commences on Monday at the Singapore Expo, with over 250 speakers, 450 exhibitors and nearly 40,000 participants expected at this event. This would make it the biggest FinTech event worldwide to date, highlighted MAS, the Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS) and SingEx Holdings in a joint release.

The five-day festival – which features an Asean theme this year in a nod to Singapore’s chairmanship of Asean – will begin with the three-day FinTech Conference, where stakeholders such as entrepreneurs, investors, regulators, technology leaders and experts will discuss the latest developments and opportunities. Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, and managing director of the International Monetary Fund, Christine Lagarde, will address the audience on the third day of the conference.

Other key features of the festival include the FinTech Exhibition, which will showcase innovative solutions from 450 exhibitors; the Global Investor Summit, which is targeted at the investment and enterprise communities; The Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Finance Summit, which will explore AI and data themes powering the future of financial services and the digital economy; and the Global FinTech Hackcelerator Demo Day, which will feature 20 market-ready FinTech solutions aimed at solving existing industry problems. In addition, 30 labs island-wide will be open for visits under the Innovation Lab Crawl.

Ong-Ang Ai Boon, ABS director, said: “Last year, we made history as the largest FinTech Festival in the world with more than 30,000 participants from over 100 countries. This year, participants can look forward to an exciting Festival, featuring world class speakers and specially curated programmes to suit their interest.”