Five banks founded Global Layer One Organisation for tokenized markets
The Global Layer One Organisation, founded on November 4, 2026, will develop shared frameworks for tokenized financial markets.
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HSBC, Kinexys by J.P. Morgan, MUFG, Societe Generale FORGE and Standard Chartered founded the Global Layer One Organisation on November 4, 2026 to develop common frameworks for tokenized financial markets and promote their adoption. Ledger Insights reported that the organisation announced on its website that it had been established.
The five banks are inviting market infrastructures, fintechs and policymakers to join the non-profit organisation.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore launched GL1 about three years ago under Project Guardian. The new organisation moves the initiative from the regulator to the industry.
According to GL1’s website, the organisation aims to develop open, interoperable, shared ledger infrastructures for hosting and executing transactions involving tokenized assets. It wants applications such as payments, capital raising and secondary trading to be deployed on those platforms. The organisation also seeks internationally accepted common principles, policies and standards so that assets and applications work across networks and jurisdictions.
Its existing work includes version 2.0 of the Market Infrastructure Toolkit. GL1 describes the toolkit as a framework for financial institutions and market infrastructure operators to validate their services against internationally recognized principles and standards across multiple jurisdictions. The website says network operators attest to the toolkit.
GL1 published a programmable compliance white paper on June 22, 2026. The paper examines how compliance checks can be built into financial infrastructure through a composable reference architecture. The website describes programmable on-chain compliance checks as one of the templates GL1 provides to support a market of compatible service providers.
The organisation’s work is organized around principles for governance, risk management controls and settlement arrangements for cross-border transactions. It also covers business, governance, risk, legal and technology requirements and asset lifecycle specifications.
The GL1 Forum brings participating industry members and policymakers together quarterly to discuss updates to existing principles, standards or templates and industry application cases. GL1 also holds public-private sector dialogues involving a broader set of financial institutions and policymakers.
The website says a lack of suitable financial networks and technical infrastructure is limiting institutions’ ability to execute digital asset transactions and deploy tokenized assets at commercial scale.