Standard Chartered Expands Digital Custody in Singapore
The bank is targeting institutional clients and accredited companies, with custody for crypto, stablecoins, and tokenized real-world assets under MAS supervision.
Key Takeaways
- Standard Chartered wants to offer custody in Singapore for selected crypto, stablecoins, and tokenized real-world assets.
- The service is aimed at institutional clients and accredited corporate clients within the financing and securities services division.
- Singapore is a tightly regulated market, where Standard Chartered competes with DBS Bank, among others.
Standard Chartered wants to offer custody in Singapore for selected crypto, stablecoins, and tokenized real-world assets. That means the bank is expanding its digital asset services further into one of Asia’s most important financial hubs, although the service still depends on the applicable regulations.
The planned service is meant for institutional clients and accredited corporate clients. So this is not a retail product, but part of the bank’s financing and securities services division. According to Standard Chartered, the service should help clients safely store assets within a regulated environment.
Expansion Through Zodia
The move fits into Standard Chartered’s broader push into digital assets. The bank has long worked through its custody arm Zodia and announced in May that it would acquire the rest of Zodia Custody, a company it founded together with Northern Trust. Last month, Standard Chartered also started institutional spot trading in Bitcoin and Ethereum in Dubai through the foreign exchange platform of its local branch.
Ole Matthiessen, global head of transaction services and digital assets, said the bank sees secure and regulated custody as an important foundation for the digital asset ecosystem. Patrick Lee, Standard Chartered’s top executive in Singapore, said demand from institutional players for trusted infrastructure for tokenized assets is increasing.
Singapore as a Competitive Market
Singapore is an important market for digital assets for banks and asset managers. The Monetary Authority of Singapore sets strict requirements for parties offering custody services, including rules around licensing, asset segregation, risk management, and cybersecurity. That makes the market attractive, but also heavily regulated.
The expansion also puts Standard Chartered alongside established players in the city-state. DBS Bank has already offered digital asset exchange and custody services there since 2020. For European crypto followers, the key point is that major traditional banks are increasingly viewing digital assets not just as a trading product, but also as an infrastructure layer for custody and tokenized assets. Also earlier in Hong Kong, Standard Chartered took a similar step by distributing a regulated stablecoin to institutional clients.
