The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has completed two pilot issuances of tokenized bills, settled using wholesale central bank digital currency (wCBDC).
The first issuance, worth 1 million Singapore dollars, took place on September 23, with maturity in one week. The second, worth 10 million Singapore dollars (about $7.8 million), took place last month—it is scheduled to mature on October 23.
Standard MAS bill issuances exceed 10 billion Singapore dollars, with a minimum maturity of four weeks. Like traditional instruments, tokenized bills are intended exclusively for institutional investors.
Settlements were processed via the SGD test network, which has been operational since 2025. Before this, MAS had leveraged its network to conduct trials on the process of interbank lending by banks like DBS, OCBC, and UOB.
By doing so, the agency has highlighted the distinct roles of various financial instruments involved. The use of tokens that represent commercial bank deposits proves to be most profitable for managing liquidity of firms and settling payments due to their ability to ensure par value by turning instantly into reserves.
While the most saturated usage of stablecoins is taking place in the financial technology ecosystem and on cryptocurrency exchanges, their stability is based on transparency of the reserve assets.
As for MAS, it has already completed consultations on the changes to the regulatory framework for single currency stablecoins. The framework establishes capital, collateral, price exchange, and disclosure requirements and enables the distinction of foreign stablecoins operating under similar regimes.
Under Project Guardian, the regulator collaborated with industry participants to test the tokenization of bonds, equities, precious metals, corporate debt, and money market funds.
As tokenization expands, MAS continues to construct a comprehensive regulatory framework for digital assets. Speaking at the INSEAD Digital Finance & Agentic AI Summit, MAS Managing Director Chia Der Jiun emphasized:
“Tokenized transactions will only scale if they are settled using safe and trusted digital money.”
Chia highlighted repo transactions as one of the most promising use cases. Tokenization streamlines securities transfers, cash settlement, and collateral valuation, and eliminates the need for manual reconciliation between counterparties. Looking ahead, tokenized bills could serve as collateral for Singapore dollar-pegged stablecoins and intraday repo transactions.
To scale beyond closed pilots, MAS is participating in Global Layer One, an international initiative developing infrastructure for cross-chain interoperability, cross-border settlements, and programmable compliance embedded directly into digital infrastructure. As the MAS chief noted, global markets are unlikely to converge on a single ledger, meaning the industry must instead focus on connecting diverse, independent networks.
The rapid rise of AI agents that are capable of automating financial transfers is another infrastructural issue. Such applications might result in considerable capital flow movements induced by small yield changes, thus complicating banks’ liquidity management strategies.
To deal with this issue, MAS, in cooperation with business experts, elaborated on the Safeguards for Agentic Finance Runtime (SAFR) guideline. Its upgrade to version 1.1 already stresses the importance of contact regulation protocols for AI agents as well as the verification of its users’ mandates and audit opportunities.
