On Tuesday, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) established a working committee with the aim of establishing industry standards for wholesale CBDC interoperability. Additionally, the committee seeks to facilitate transactions involving tokenized assets and interbank settlements using wCBDC.
The committee, known as Project Ensemble Architecture Community, will focus initially on creating a mechanism to support seamless interbank settlement of tokenized deposits through wCBDC for tokenized asset transactions. It will provide recommendations on various topics related to this objective.
The Project Ensemble Sandbox, scheduled to be launched by mid-2024, will be instrumental in implementing these recommendations. This sandbox will serve as a platform for further research and testing of various tokenization use cases, as highlighted by the HKMA.
According to the announcement, the committee consists of members who possess expertise in contributing to the development of the tokenization market in Hong Kong.
Representatives from various sectors, including regulators, banks, academia, and crypto firms, are part of this initiative. Initially, it includes entities like the HKMA, the Securities and Futures Commission, the Hong Kong arm of BIS Innovation Hub, the CBDC Expert Group, and private banks and firms such as Hang Seng Bank, HSBC, Standard Chartered Hong Kong, HashKey Group, and Microsoft Hong Kong.
Project Ensemble, launched by the HKMA in March, introduces a new wholesale CBDC. Eddie Yue Wai-man, Chief Executive of the HKMA, stated that the launch aimed to enhance Hong Kong’s dynamic financial sector. He underscored Hong Kong’s dedication to innovation, encouraging international collaboration among industry experts in the realm of tokenization.
Yue Wai-man highlighted the significance of Project Ensemble in invigorating Hong Kong’s financial landscape and reinforcing its leading position in the tokenized assets sphere.
Hong Kong’s e-HKD is in Phase 2
Hong Kong’s central bank has been actively exploring the potential of a CBDC. Recently, the HKMA announced the launch of phase 2 of its e-HKD pilot program.
In this phase, the central bank has invited industry participants to propose potential use cases. The focus of phase 2 is on delving deeper into programmability, tokenization, and atomic settlement of a digital Hong Kong dollar.
Phase 1 of the program concluded in October 2023, where the HKMA successfully tested the use of e-HKD for various domestic retail purposes, including programmable payments and offline transactions.
