From Pilots to Plumbing: MAS and Global Partners Advance Tokenised Cross-Border Settlement

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has announced three closely related initiatives that mark a shift from experimental pilots to the design of real-world infrastructure for tokenised assets and cross-border settlement. Unveiled on 13 November 2025, these developments span a strategic MoU with the Deutsche Bundesbank, a live wholesale CBDC trial in the interbank market, and a new collaboration with the Bank of England and the Bank of Thailand on synchronised FX settlement.

MAS–Deutsche Bundesbank: Building Standards for Tokenised Cross-Border Settlement

MAS and the Deutsche Bundesbank have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to deepen cooperation on cross-border digital asset settlement between Singapore and Germany. The agreement focuses on developing new settlement solutions that can reduce both the cost and processing time of cross-border transfers, and on promoting common standards for payments, foreign exchange and securities flows involving tokenised assets. The explicit emphasis on interoperability means the two central banks are not only experimenting with tokenisation, but also seeking to align standards so that different digital asset platforms can connect more easily. This MoU builds on MAS’s broader work under Project Guardian, which aims to harness asset tokenisation to enhance market liquidity and efficiency. 

Live Interbank Overnight Lending on Wholesale CBDC

MAS has also completed a live trial for settling interbank overnight lending transactions using a wholesale central bank digital currency. The trial was conducted on the Singapore Dollar Test Network (SGD Testnet), a shared ledger infrastructure that allows financial institutions to test the settlement of tokenised financial assets using wholesale CBDC. DBS, OCBC and UOB participated in the trial, which featured the first live issuance of Singapore-dollar wholesale CBDC, with transactions reflected in the participating banks’ official books and regulatory filings.

The SGD Testnet currently provides three key capabilities: a common settlement asset in the form of wholesale CBDC, programmability that allows payment and contractual terms to be coded and executed automatically, and multi-asset functionality that supports atomic settlement of both cash and securities legs of a transaction. MAS intends to build on this pilot through a future trial that will involve issuing tokenised MAS Bills to Primary Dealers, to be settled using CBDC, with more details expected in 2026. 

Synchronised FX Settlement Across Borders

In a parallel announcement, the Bank of England, MAS and the Bank of Thailand have agreed to explore the synchronised settlement of foreign exchange transactions across borders. Drawing on insights from Project Meridian FX, the collaboration will use simulated versions of the participating central banks’ real-time gross settlement systems alongside distributed ledger–based settlement environments. The aim is to test interoperability between different types of settlement infrastructure and to assess more complex, multilateral use cases.

A key objective is to enable atomic, real-time FX transactions that are fast, secure and interoperable across jurisdictions with different infrastructures, time zones and regulatory frameworks. In practical terms, the work will explore how synchronisation can support Payment-versus-Payment settlement for FX trades, and potentially underpin cross-border Delivery-versus-Payment use cases in tokenised markets. 

Converging on Interoperable Tokenised Market Infrastructure

Taken together, these three initiatives point to a clear direction of travel. Central banks are increasingly focused on interoperability as a design principle for the next generation of settlement systems; wholesale CBDC is moving from conceptual design to live use in core interbank markets; and cross-border coordination is becoming central to how tokenised financial infrastructure is developed.

Singapore, through MAS, is positioning itself as a key node in this emerging landscape—not just running isolated pilots, but actively shaping the standards, networks and settlement mechanisms that could underpin the future of tokenised, cross-border finance.

Sources:

Bank of England, Monetary Authority of Singapore and Bank of Thailand to Explore Synchronised FX Settlement Across Borders

MAS Announces Successful Live Trial of Settlement of Interbank Overnight Lending Using Wholesale Central Bank Digital Currency

MAS and Deutsche Bundesbank sign MoU on tokenisation and cross-border settlement