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The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has issued a report proposing a scheme to “design open, interoperable networks for digital assets (ie tokenized real-world economic and financial assets)”. It contains contributions from experts from the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructure (CPMI) of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), together with selected financial institutions.
The report – titled “Enabling Open and Interoperable Networks” – looks at ways in which governing standards and best practices related to market infrastructure can be applied to digital assets. MAS is quoted as saying that “the report is part [its] an effort to ensure that new digital asset networks are underpinned by international standards that promote a secure and efficient financial market infrastructure.”
The release of the report follows the successful launch and development of “Project Guardian”, which is MAS’s push to work in collaboration with the financial services sector to experiment with different financial use cases for tokenization and decentralization.
In line with the release of the report, MAS announced that new test projects sponsored by Project Guardian – under the banner of the Project Guardian Industry Group – will be launched to promote use case research in the areas of asset and wealth management, fixed income and foreign exchange.
Among the announced participants in these projects are leading companies such as HSBC, DBS, Citi, UBS and Standard Chartered. In addition to industry participants, Project Guardian will also include input from leading global regulators, starting with the Financial Services Agency (FSA) of Japan.
This represents an important step forward in the development of the global digital asset market structure and highlights the need for best-in-class screening and investigation products to ensure that the standards set in the traditional financial services sector can be easily applied in the decentralized economy. . The intellectual fusion of systemically important financial service providers with cutting-edge global regulators presents a unique opportunity to create a safer and healthier future for the global digital asset sector.
The SEC has said it will reject spot Bitcoin ETF filings
According to rumors, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has deemed filings for Bitcoin ETFs filed by Nasdaq and the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) to be inadequate, according to The Wall Street Journal.
The SEC claims that the filings — filed by exchanges for major asset managers such as Fidelity and BlackRock — are insufficiently clear and comprehensive and lack adequate oversight-sharing agreements, which would prevent (or at least hinder) the emergence of a market. manipulations and other abuses. The initial rejection allows affected parties to amend their applications, which the CBOE has already indicated it will do.
FCA head of digital assets resigns
Binu Paul – who took over from Victoria McLoughlin as head of digital assets at the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) – has resigned after less than a year in the job. Prior to taking up the role, Paul was the lead FinTech expert at New Zealand’s Financial Markets Authority (FMA).
His departure comes at a critical time for the digital asset sector in the UK, as the country is poised to adopt the Financial Services and Markets Bill in the near future, which will provide an innovative regulatory framework for the issuance and exchange of cryptocurrencies. McLoughlin will retake the reins of the FCA’s digital assets team on an interim basis, although a permanent replacement has not yet been identified.
The FATF publishes an update on the status of standards for virtual assets and virtual asset service providers
On June 27, the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) published a report on member states’ progress in implementing its recommendations regarding virtual assets and virtual asset service providers (VASPs).
Among the ongoing challenges identified by the global regulatory coordination organization are undertaking risk assessments, enacting legislation to regulate VASPs and conducting supervisory inspections, with 75% of jurisdictions not fully compliant with applicable requirements. The FATF has stated that, in order to support its ongoing mission, it will commit to:
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Continue outreach and assistance to low-capacity jurisdictions.
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Identify and publicize the steps that FATF member jurisdictions and other jurisdictions with material VASP activities have taken to implement R.15/INR.15.
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Facilitate the exchange of knowledge, experiences and challenges including DeFi, unhosted wallets and P2P and monitor market trends in this area for material developments that may require further work by the FATF.
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Continue to work with member countries and the private sector on progress and challenges.
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Conduct a further review of progress and remaining implementation challenges by June 2024.
Regulation EMEA Regulators and Government
