Singapore, Germany Partner on 2025 Digital Asset Deal to Boost Cross-Border Payments
Singapore's Monetary Authority (MAS) and Germany's Deutsche Bundesbank have joined forces to make it easier, cheaper and more efficient...
Quick overview
- Singapore's Monetary Authority and Germany's Deutsche Bundesbank have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to enhance cross-border digital asset settlements.
- The partnership aims to speed up international transactions, reduce costs, and promote universal standards in payments and securities liquidity.
- This collaboration builds on Singapore's Project Guardian and reflects a growing trend of central banks influencing the future of cross-border finance.
- Analysts believe this initiative could establish a benchmark for international digital asset frameworks in the future.
Singapore’s Monetary Authority (MAS) and Germany’s Deutsche Bundesbank have joined forces to make it easier, cheaper and more efficient to settle digital assets across borders. The partnership was sealed at Singapore’s annual FinTech Festival, where a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed by MAS Deputy Managing Director Leong Sing Chiong, Deutsche Bundesbank Executive Board member Burkhard Balz, and Digital Euro Director General Alexandra Hachmeister. The real deal here is to speed up international transactions and cut costs
MAS’s Leong reckons this partnership will boost financial ties between Singapore and Germany, benefiting everyone from individual traders to big institutions and the wider financial markets. Deutsche Bundesbank’s Balz says the collaboration will introduce some much-needed innovation to international payments and securities transactions.
The Key Bits of This Partnership
Here are the main goals of the MoU :
- Make cross-border transactions speedier and cheaper by developing new settlement solutions
- Get everyone on the same page when it comes to international payments, foreign exchanges and securities liquidity – i.e. promoting universal standards
- Get tokenized real-world assets to work smoothly across different crypto platforms
These are all the things that both Germany and Singapore are working towards to stay at the forefront of digital asset innovation and host secure and efficient global transactions
𝗔𝘅𝗲𝗹 𝗪𝗲𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝗿 #𝗦𝗙𝗙𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱 🔥
“FinTech started as a rebellion, but it's ending as a partnership. Banks are learning to innovate. Startups are learning to comply. Regulators are learning to relax. The next chapter of FinTech isn't about… pic.twitter.com/s49LK4HUz3
— Singapore FinTech Festival (@sgfintechfest) November 12, 2025
Why This Partnership Matters
The MAS-Deutsche Bundesbank partnership builds on Singapore’s Project Guardian that was launched back in 2022. It got over 40 financial institutions, regulators and industry groups from multiple jurisdictions on board – and it’s all about tokenizing financial assets and developing Singapore’s digital-asset ecosystem.
Singapore’s been doing this sort of thing for a while now – they signed a similar deal with the U.K in July 2025 to strengthen their work on digital finance, innovation, sustainable finance and capital markets regulations. And with this new partnership with Germany they’re hoping to build a global network for digital asset settlements that’ll help get financial systems talking to each other more easily
The fact that the MAS and Deutsche Bundesbank have come together like this is a sign of a much bigger trend – that’s central banks are taking a more prominent role in shaping the future of cross-border finance. And as they get the balance right between new tech and regulation we can expect to see some pretty big developments in the years to come
Key Initiatives Under the MoU
The partnership includes several key objectives designed to give a boost to digital finance frameworks :
- Speed up cross border transactions and reduce costs by developing new settlement solutions.
- Get everyone on the same page when it comes to international payments, foreign exchanges, and securities liquidity – promote universal standards
- Regulate tokenized real-world assets to improve interoperability between crypto platforms
These are the kinds of things that both countries are working towards to stay at the forefront of digital asset innovation and host secure and efficient global transactions
Building On Project Guardian
The MAS-Deutsche Bundesbank collaboration is based on Singapore’s Project Guardian which was launched back in 2022. It got over 40 financial institutions, regulators and industry groups from multiple jurisdictions on board – and it’s all about tokenizing financial assets and developing Singapore’s digital-asset ecosystem.
This isn’t the only time Singapore has gone down this road – they signed a similar agreement with the U.K in July 2025 to strengthen their work on digital finance, innovation, sustainable finance and capital markets regulations. And with this new partnership with Germany they’re hoping to build a global network for digital asset settlements that’ll help get financial systems talking to each other more easily
The MoU is a sign of the bigger trend that’s central banks actively shaping the future of cross-border finance – getting the balance right between new tech and regulation. And analysts think this partnership could set a benchmark for international digital asset frameworks in the coming years.
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