Standard Chartered to expand crypto custody services in Singapore

Standard Chartered's Singapore unit is planning crypto custody for institutions, as it continues to expand its crypto-related services.

In a statement released Thursday, the bank said that it plans to offer custody for selected crypto assets, stablecoins, and tokenized real-world assets to institutional investors, subject to applicable regulatory requirements.

“We aim to launch our custody offering to hold selected crypto, stablecoins and tokenized real world assets by the end of the year,” Ying Ying Tan, global head for digital assets at Standard Chartered, told The Block.

The bank said the service would extend its existing crypto custody footprint in the UAE, Luxembourg, and Hong Kong.

The planned service would come alongside the Singapore unit's financing and securities services, enabling it to "expand its support of institutional clients across wider asset lifecycles," the bank said.

"Singapore is an important centre for financial innovation, with a strong institutional ecosystem and growing demand for trusted digital asset solutions," said Patrick Lee, Standard Chartered's CEO for Singapore, ASEAN and South Asia. "Robust infrastructure will be critical to supporting the secure movement, safekeeping, and servicing of tokenised assets at an institutional scale."

The expansion follows the bank's move to bring more of its crypto custody operations in-house. In April, Bloomberg reported that Standard Chartered was weighing folding parts of Zodia Custody, the institutional custodian it incubated with Northern Trust in 2020, into its corporate bank division. In May, the bank said its non-binding offer had been accepted.

Zodia has maintained a presence in Singapore since September 2023, when it began offering institutional crypto asset services in the city-state. It later expanded into Hong Kong. In June, Zodia secured a payment institution license in Luxembourg, enabling it to provide regulated stablecoin custody and transfer services across the EU.

Updated with comment from Standard Chartered.