The banks

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Singapore's three domestic banks, DBS, OCBC and UOB, are all participants in the digital-asset market in a way no Swiss systemic bank was before 2024. DBS launched the DBS Digital Exchange in December 2020 as a members-only platform for accredited and institutional investors, offering trading in a short list of tokens against fiat, custody through the bank and a security-token issuance platform. SGX took a ten per cent stake. In 2024 DBS added token services for institutional clients, including tokenised deposits and programmable payment conditions, built on a permissioned ledger.¹ OCBC and UOB have taken part in Project Guardian pilots on tokenised bonds and funds, and OCBC began offering tokenised bonds to accredited investors in 2024. The international banks with large Singapore operations, J.P. Morgan through its Onyx (now Kinexys) business, Standard Chartered through its custody venture Zodia and HSBC through its Orion platform, run their Asian tokenisation work largely from Singapore.²

Partior, founded in 2021 by DBS, J.P. Morgan and Temasek and later joined by Standard Chartered, operates a permissioned network for interbank settlement in tokenised commercial bank money and is headquartered in Singapore. It is the clearest commercial descendant of Project Ubin and an illustration of the kind of digital-asset business MAS likes: regulated banks, tokenised deposits, wholesale use and no public token.³

Singapore perspective

For a Swiss founder the most important feature of the Singapore banking scene is the one least visible from Zug: the domestic banks will open accounts for licensed crypto firms because MAS has signalled that it expects them to. A firm that holds a major payment institution licence can expect DBS, OCBC or UOB to consider an operating account, subject to enhanced due diligence that takes months. A firm without a licence, or with only a notification under the transitional provisions, will struggle. A firm on the Investor Alert List will fail. In Switzerland the sequence is the opposite: the bank account comes from a cantonal or specialist bank that takes crypto clients, after which the SRO membership follows. Part P, Chapter IX sets out the banking strategy for both hubs.

Notes

DBS media release of 10 December 2020 announcing the DBS Digital Exchange with SGX as a ten per cent shareholder; DBS media release of October 2024 on DBS Token Services for institutional clients. ↩
MAS, Project Guardian industry group participants as listed on the MAS website (seventeen financial institutions at November 2023, expanded since); OCBC announcement of November 2024 on tokenised bonds for accredited investors; author's summary of public announcements by J.P. Morgan, Standard Chartered and HSBC. ↩
Partior Pte Ltd, incorporated in Singapore in 2021 as a joint venture of DBS Bank, J.P. Morgan and Temasek, with Standard Chartered joining as a shareholder in 2022; author's summary of public announcements. ↩

For general information only. This article does not constitute legal or tax advice, does not replace advice on an individual case and creates no lawyer-client relationship. It reflects the legal position as of October 2026.

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Dr Alexander Ressos, TEP

Of Counsel, KGP Legal LLC

I am Of Counsel with KGP Legal LLC in Singapore, where I work with a global client base of successful entrepreneurs and their families, independent asset managers, commodity trading houses and other commercial clients. I am a German and Swiss attorney-at-law, also admitted as a solicitor in England & Wales and in Hong Kong. I divide my time between Zug in Switzerland, Singapore and Hong Kong. Since 2017 I have advised international clients on more than 700 crypto and digital asset projects. I also have extensive experience in cross-border litigation and arbitration in Singapore, Hong Kong and other markets in South-East Asia and Greater China.

I operate across the key financial centres in South-East Asia, the Middle East and Switzerland, with a particular focus on asset protection, international tax and estate planning, as well as trusts, company administration and other fiduciary services. My philosophy is to serve as a trusted advisor working closely with my clients and to help them achieve their commercial objectives.

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KGP Legal LLC is a medium-sized law firm in Singapore that is capable of providing the full range of legal services and corporate administration work. Please contact me if you need any further information.

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SingaporeIQ is edited by Dr Alexander Ressos, an international business lawyer with more than 15 years of local experience in Singapore as a permanent resident, a Singapore registered foreign lawyer and managing partner of a Singapore foreign law practice. In addition to significant experience in cross-border investments and transactions, UHNWI private client work and sanctions/export controls, Dr Ressos has extensive experience in cross-border business and in crypto and digital-asset projects in Singapore, drawn from more than 700 projects since 2017.

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