Singapore bank DBS allows e-CNY settlements

• The DBS bank has started an e-CNY collection platform.
• The platform will enable automated settlement of e-CNY into businesses’ CNY bank deposit accounts.
• The bank is participating in Project Guardian, a project for testing asset tokenization and DeFi for traditional banks.

According to a Wednesday announcement, clients of the Singaporean bank DBS can now receive payments in e-CNY, the digital currency issued by the Chinese central bank.

The new platform enables automated e-CNY settlement into business customers’ bank deposit accounts. According to DBS, at least one client has already completed a transaction using this platform.

Singapore’s Project Guardian

Besides taking part in experiments aimed at building the infrastructure required to issue a programmable digital Singapore dollar, DBS is also taking part in Project Guardian, a project launched by the Monetary Authority of Singapore to test asset tokenization and decentralized finance (DeFi) for traditional banks.

Project Guardian involved the DeFi lending platform Aave, the decentralized exchange Uniswap, and the Ethereum scaling system Polygon. The project will also involve several traditional banks including Singapore’s DBS Bank, US-based JPMorgan, and Japan’s SBI Digital in addition to Marketnode, a digital asset platform built by the Singapore Exchange (SGX) and Temasek.

The first phase of the Project Guardian testing involved trades in tokenized Singapore dollars (SGD), Japanese yen (JPY), Japanese government bonds, and Singapore government securities and was done using Polygon, Aave and Uniswap.