In a major regulatory development, Standard Chartered announced on Thursday that it plans to provide custody for selected crypto assets, stablecoins and tokenized real-world assets to institutional investors in Singapore, subject to applicable regulatory requirements.
The service will build on the bank’s existing financing and securities capabilities as well as bring together asset servicing, tokenisation and digital asset custody.
On the development, Patrick Lee, CEO, Singapore and CEO, ASEAN and South Asia, Standard Chartered, said: “Singapore is an important centre for financial innovation, with a strong institutional ecosystem and growing demand for trusted digital asset solutions.”
“Robust infrastructure will be critical to supporting the secure movement, safekeeping, and servicing of tokenised assets at an institutional scale.”
Ole Matthiessen, global head for transaction services and digital assets at Standard Chartered, said: “As client demand continues to grow, we will continue investing in our digital assets capabilities across key financial centres, connecting clients to opportunities through a secure, integrated, and globally connected platform.”
The bank has been developing the business through Zodia Custody, an institutional digital asset custodian it launched in 2020 with Northern Trust. Bloomberg had reported in April that Standard Chartered was considering moving parts of Zodia into its corporate bank division. On 18 May 2026, the bank stated that Zodia’s shareholders and noteholders had accepted its non-binding offer to acquire the remainder of the firm.
Under the agreement, Zodia’s regulated custody activities will transfer to Standard Chartered’s Financing and Securities Services business, consolidating the group’s custody operations. The infrastructure platform arm of Zodia will be separated into a new entity, Zodia Solutions, which will operate under SC Ventures.
The Singapore announcement follows another expansion of the bank. Last month, Standard Chartered began providing institutional spot bitcoin and ether trading through the foreign-exchange platform of its Dubai branch.
