Australia’s bank joins Project Guardian to allow stablecoin payments between network chains

ANZ Bank will now work in conjunction with Project Guardian to investigate a more comprehensive range of tokenized real-world assets in financial markets.

ANZ, an Australian financial institution, has collaborated with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) on Project Guardian to investigate the potential of real-world asset (RWA) tokenization in financial markets. Insights from the Swift blockchain interoperability initiative, which commenced in June, have led to the decision.

In partnership with blockchain oracle provider Chainlink Labs and Singapore-based investment firm ADDX, ANZ intends to evaluate the functionality of RWAs, including commercial documents, across various blockchains, as announced on Sept. 30.

Mark Evans, the Country Head of ANZ in Singapore, expressed his opinion on the new partnership, stating:

“MAS is a global leader in its unwavering dedication to the digitization of the financial system through industry collaboration. We are delighted to announce our participation in Project Guardian and to contribute to the rapid advancement of a secure and reliable digital asset ecosystem that will be indispensable in satisfying the future requirements of our consumers throughout the region.”

Project Guardian, which was initiated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore approximately two years ago, is a collaborative endeavor between the financial sector and policymakers that is designed to enhance the efficacy of financial markets and promote liquidity through the tokenization of RWA.

Nigel Dobson, the banking services director at ANZ, underscored the organization’s commitment to improving the extensibility of its Australian dollar-backed A$DC stablecoin across blockchains. According to Zach Rynes, Chainlink’s community liaison, ANZ will utilize Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP) to facilitate the movement of RWAs between blockchains.

Dobson observed that the tokenized asset markets are current “extremely fragmented,” which impedes the seamless transfer of RWAs between blockchains and complicates integration for financial institutions. Using an interoperability protocol such as Chainlink’s CCIP could potentially address this issue.

Project Guardian will provide local assistance to ANZ in Singapore, where the bank has a presence. In the past, Project Guardian has featured DBS Bank, SBI Digital Asset Holdings, WisdomTree, and S&P Global, Deutsche Bank, and JPMorgan’s blockchain platform Onyx in its trial initiatives.

In addition to administrations from the United Kingdom, Japan, Singapore, Switzerland, and France, the policymaker group of Project Guardian includes the International Monetary Fund.

Chainlink Labs and ANZ recently disclosed the results of a collaborative effort that established a connection between blockchains to facilitate the international transfer and settlement of tokenized assets, with Ethereum and Avalanche being the most prominent examples.

ANZ provides banking services and products to over 8.5 million retail and institutional customers at over 30 locations. In an effort to investigate the potential of on-chain digital assets, ANZ implemented Chainlink’s Cross-Chain Interoperability Protocol (CCIP), a blockchain interoperability solution. This protocol demonstrated how clients could effortlessly access, trade, and settle tokenized assets across networks in a variety of currencies—a process referred to as Delivery vs. Payment (DvP).

Utilizing its own Avalanche Evergreen Subnet, ANZ implemented this initiative. This is due to its customized gas token, permissioning, and EVM compatibility, among other features.

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