Hong Kong’s launch of wCBDC sandbox takes it closer to tokenised market Hong Kong’s de facto central bank on Wednesday launched a sandbox for wholesale central bank digital currency (wCBDC), with six participants showcasing projects to bring the city closer to using tokenised money to support digital asset transactions. The launch comes five months after the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) announced Project Ensemble, a pilot to facilitate seamless interbank settlement of tokenised money via wCBDC. This was followed by the setting up of an architecture community in May that led to the launch of the sandbox. The sandbox involves 25 participants in the first round of experiment. They include note-issuing banks HSBC, Standard Chartered and Bank of China (Hong Kong), Hang Seng Bank, fintech provider Ant Group and cryptocurrency exchange HashKey Group. The six members also announced their use cases that will be further tested to achieve scalability and interoperability. Other participants include international financial institutions such as BlackRock and Franklin Templeton and local firms like Hong Kong and China Gas Company, Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing, Cyberport and Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation. “Tokenisation has the potential to make financial transactions much more efficient, transparent and less costly,” Eddie Yue Wai-man, CEO of HKMA, said at the launch ceremony. It has the potential to be a part of the future of finance, he added. The sandbox will test a new financial market infrastructure that facilitates the four stages of a tokenised asset transaction: creation, trading, payment and settlement using tokenised bank deposits and final interbank settlement through the CBDC issued by HKMA, Yue said. The participants will further test and refine their use cases in four key themes: fixed income and investment funds, liquidity management, green and sustainable finance, and trade and supply chain financing. The three note-issuing banks and Hang Seng Bank have connected their prototype tokenised deposits to the sandbox, paving the way to experiment interbank settlements of tokenised assets. Ant International, the operator of Alipay+, said on Wednesday it will partner with Standard Chartered and HSBC to develop a global liquidity management solution that allows banks to exchange their tokens, by leveraging its blockchain platform. This will allow cross-border payments to be conducted 24/7 in real time. Ant Group is an affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding, owner of the Post. Another Ant Group unit, Ant Digital Technologies, is working on leveraging its blockchain and internet-of-things technologies to facilitate the tokenisation of real-world assets such as charging stations. It will be able to record the real-time operational status of physical assets, which increases transparency that could enable stakeholders to assess value and manage risk, which will improve financing efficiency and accessibility. To promote wider adoption and develop regulatory framework, the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) will co-lead with the HKMA the tokenisation initiatives for the asset management industry under the category of fixed income and investment funds. The financial regulators aim to use the sandbox to enable participants to explore the use cases for tokenised assets in a controlled environment, help set a common industry benchmark for tokenisation and to help resolve some of the pain points in financing the real economy. Hong Kong has been at the forefront of experimenting with different forms of digital money, which include wCBDC, a retail version called e-HKD and mBridge, a multi-country CBDC project involving the city, mainland China, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates. A stablecoin sandbox has also been set up to allow companies to trial cryptocurrency tokens pegged to fiat currency in the city. The aim of these initiatives is to boost the city’s status as an international finance hub, while putting it on the global map for issuing digital deposits and assets, as well as attracting talent and market participants in the sector, Yue said in March. https://www.scmp.com/business/banking-finance/article/3276253/hong-kongs-launch-wcbdc-sandbox-takes-it-closer-tokenised-market (ICE HONG KONG)

Fonte notizia: South China Morning Post