Five Financial Institutions Form GL1 Org to Develop Tokenized Market Standards

Five financial institutions have formed a Singapore-based nonprofit to develop common standards for tokenized financial markets, aiming to improve connections across institutions, market infrastructure and jurisdictions.

The Global Layer One Organisation (GL1 Org) announced its formation Nov. 4. Its founding participants are HSBC, Kinexys by JPMorgan, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Societe Generale-Forge and Standard Chartered.

GL1 Org will build on the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS)'s Global Layer One initiative. Its work aims to improve interoperability among financial institutions, market infrastructure and jurisdictions, allowing them to work together across networks.

Limited access to suitable networks and technical infrastructure has constrained institutions' ability to deploy tokenized assets commercially. The Global Layer One initiative focuses on open, shared-ledger infrastructure for tokenized-asset transactions, including payments, capital raising and secondary trading.

GL1 Org will support the development and adoption of common standards and frameworks for those markets.