Standard Chartered plans to offer custody for selected crypto assets, stablecoins and tokenized real-world assets in Singapore, the bank said in its announcement on Thursday.
The service is aimed at institutional clients and corporate clients qualifying as accredited investors, and it remains subject to applicable regulatory requirements. It would sit inside the bank’s Financing and Securities Services business rather than operate as a retail product.
Ying Ying Tan, the bank’s global head of digital assets, said the launch is targeted for the end of the year. The bank did not say which specific assets the Singapore service would support and did not respond when asked which cryptocurrencies would be included.
Patrick Lee, CEO, Singapore and CEO, ASEAN and South Asia at Standard Chartered, said the launch strengthens the bank’s ability to help clients bridge traditional and digital markets “through secure, regulated and bank-grade infrastructure.” He added that infrastructure able to hold institutional volumes would be critical to the secure movement, safekeeping and servicing of tokenised assets.
The bank said the Singapore offering would extend a custody footprint that already covers the UAE, Luxembourg and Hong Kong. The move follows its May announcement that it would acquire Zodia Custody’s regulated custody business, the custodian it incubated with Northern Trust in 2020, and fold it into the Financing and Securities Services division. Zodia has offered institutional crypto services in Singapore since September 2023.
Singapore’s regulator, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, licenses custodians under the Payment Services Act and the Securities and Futures Act, with requirements covering asset segregation, risk management and cybersecurity.
The Singapore plan follows the bank’s start of institutional spot bitcoin and ether trading through its Dubai branch last month. Deutsche Bank, meanwhile, said in September it plans to launch custody for bitcoin, ether and select stablecoins for European corporate and institutional clients later in 2026, pending regulatory approval.
