The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) formed a working committee on Tuesday to set industry standards for wholesale CBDC interoperability. The group also aims to facilitate tokenized asset transactions and interbank settlements using wCBDCs.
“Make recommendations on specific topics, initially focusing on establishing a mechanism to support seamless interbank settlement of tokenized deposits via wCBDCs for tokenized asset transactions.”
The group, dubbed the Project Ensemble Architecture Community, will help implement the Sandbox, which is scheduled to launch in mid-2024. The HKMA noted that Project Ensemble would help with further research and testing of tokenization use cases.
According to the announcement, the committee is composed of members who are experts in “contributions to the development of the tokenization market in Hong Kong.”
This includes representatives from various fields, such as regulators, banks, academia, crypto companies, among others. Initially, this would include the HKMA, the Securities and Futures Commission, the Hong Kong branch of the BIS Innovation Hub, the CBDC expert group, and private banks and companies such as Hang Seng Bank, HSBC, Standard Chartered Hong Kong, HashKey Group and Microsoft Hong Kong.
Project Ensemble is the HKMA’s new wholesale CBDC, launched in March. According to Eddie Yue Wai-man, CEO of the HKMA, the launch was aimed at boosting Hong Kong’s vibrant financial sector.
Yue Wai-man emphasized Hong Kong’s commitment to innovation, inviting industry experts to participate in the tokenization. “Project Ensemble will provide a fresh impetus to our vibrant financial industry and strengthen our leadership position in tokenized assets.”
Hong Kong e-HKD is in phase 2 of the
Hong Kong’s central bank is simultaneously exploring the potential of CBDCs in greater depth. Last month, the HKMA announced that it is launching the second phase of an e-HKD pilot program.
Under the Phase 2 initiative, the central bank invited industry participants to propose potential use cases. The second phase focused more on exploring programmability, tokenization and atomic settlement of the digital Hong Kong dollar.
The HKMA completed its first phase in October 2023, successfully testing the use of e-HKD for various domestic retail purposes, including programmable payments and offline transactions.
