Standard Chartered’s Singapore bank said on October 8 it plans to custody digital assets for institutional clients. Custody means holding and safeguarding assets on a client’s behalf.
The entity is Standard Chartered Bank (Singapore) Limited. The release says it is planning to provide custody for selected cryptoassets, stablecoins, and tokenized real-world assets for institutional clients and accredited investor corporate clients, subject to applicable regulatory requirements. The release does not specify a launch date.
The announcement is the bank’s release of October 8, 2026. In Singapore, the bank said the planned service will sit alongside its Financing and Securities Services business, covering traditional asset servicing, tokenization, and digital asset custody.
What Standard Chartered announced
Patrick Lee, chief executive for Singapore and for ASEAN and South Asia, said Singapore has a strong institutional ecosystem and growing demand for trusted digital-asset services, and that the step is a milestone as the bank prepares to bring custody to clients there. He referred to safekeeping and servicing of tokenized assets at an institutional scale.
Ole Matthiessen, global head of transaction services and digital assets, said regulated custody is a foundation of the market and that the bank will keep investing in digital-asset capabilities across financial centers. He described the bank as a global systemically important bank.
The release does not name any clients or assets under custody. Accredited investor corporates are a defined Singapore client category. The release does not mention retail customers.
Assets, partners, and regulatory status
The release says the service will cover “selected” cryptoassets, stablecoins, and tokenized real-world assets. It does not name specific tokens, stablecoin issuers or tokenized funds, or any technology provider.
The release does not say whether the Monetary Authority of Singapore has granted or varied a license for the service. On the Financial Institutions Directory page for Standard Chartered Bank (Singapore) Limited, checked on October 8, the bank is listed as a qualifying full bank and an exempt capital-markets services entity.
The listed activities include providing custodial services, fund management, dealing in capital-market products, product financing, and advising on corporate finance. The page does not list a digital payment token service or a major payment institution license. The directory names Patrick Lee Fook Yau as chief executive.
How the release sits next to the Zodia acquisition
In May, Standard Chartered confirmed it would acquire the client custody business of Zodia Custody, the firm it co-founded with Northern Trust in 2020, and fold that book into Corporate and Investment Banking. The Crypto Times reported that Zodia had offices including Singapore and registrations that included Singapore and that the software arm would keep serving third-party banks.
The October 8 release does not mention Zodia. The release does not say whether the Zodia acquisition has completed, or whether Singapore clients will be served by the bank directly or through the former Zodia business.
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