Malaysia's Central Bank Strives to Harmonize Blockchain Advancements and Monetary Stability in Ambitious Three-Year Tokenization Initiative
Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), the nation’s central bank, has introduced a three-year strategy to investigate asset tokenization within the financial industry, with the goal of upgrading infrastructure and tackling practical issues, as reported by
The roadmap focuses on tokenizing real-world assets (RWAs) instead of cryptocurrencies, with intended uses including SME supply chain financing, automation in Islamic finance, sustainable finance, and round-the-clock international settlements, according to
The central bank emphasized that blockchain technology should provide measurable advantages and be technically practical. Each project will be assessed on three criteria: delivering real-world impact, not using distributed ledger technology (DLT) as a standalone fix, and ensuring compatibility with current systems, according to
Feedback from the industry on the roadmap’s consultation paper is being accepted until March 1, 2026, with BNM encouraging banks, fintech companies, and developers to submit their proposed use cases, according to
In addition to BNM’s efforts, Malaysia’s financial industry is already moving toward tokenization. Maybank has recently teamed up with Marketnode and BNP Paribas to tokenize its Money Market Fund, making it more accessible and transparent for investors. At the same time,
