HKMA Forms Working Group to Establish Wholesale CBDC Interoperability Standards
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has announced the creation of a working committee to develop industry standards for wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC) interoperability. The group’s main objective is to facilitate tokenized asset transactions and interbank settlement using wholesale CBDC (wCBDC).
The working committee, known as Project Ensemble Architecture Community, will play a crucial role in the implementation of the Sandbox, which is set to launch in mid-2024. The Sandbox will provide a platform for further research and testing of tokenization use cases, as highlighted by the HKMA.
The committee consists of experts who have contributed to the development of the tokenization market in Hong Kong. It includes representatives from various domains, such as regulators, banks, academia, and crypto firms. The initial members of the committee include the HKMA, the Securities and Futures Commission, the Hong-Kong arm of BIS Innovation Hub, CBDC Expert Group, as well as private banks and firms like Hang Seng Bank, HSBC, Standard Chartered Hong Kong, HashKey Group, and Microsoft Hong Kong.
Project Ensemble, the wholesale CBDC launched by HKMA in March, aims to strengthen Hong Kong’s financial industry. Eddie Yue Wai-man, Chief Executive of the HKMA, emphasized Hong Kong’s commitment to innovation and invited international collaboration from industry experts to participate in tokenization.
In addition to the establishment of the working group, HKMA is also progressing with its e-HKD CBDC initiative. The central bank recently announced the launch of phase 2 of its e-HKD pilot program, which focuses on exploring programmability, tokenization, and atomic settlement of a digital Hong Kong dollar. The successful completion of phase 1 in October 2023 validated the use of e-HKD for various domestic retail purposes, including programmable payments and offline transactions.
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