The HKMA has announced the establishment of the Project Ensemble Architecture Community, aiming to collaborate with the industry to shape standards and provide suggestions for developing Hong Kong’s tokenisation market.
Key findings from the press release indicate that the Community’s primary goal is to develop industry standards supporting interoperability among wholesale Central Bank Digital Currency (wCBDC), tokenised money, and tokenised assets.
It will initially focus on creating a mechanism to facilitate seamless interbank settlement of tokenised deposits through wCBDC for tokenised asset transactions. Additionally, the Community will play a pivotal role in designing and implementing the Project Ensemble Sandbox, set to launch by mid-2024, to facilitate further research and testing of tokenisation use cases.
The Community consists of a diverse spectrum of industry representatives, including regulators, international organisations, academia, local and multinational banks, key players in the digital asset industry, and technology companies. Notable members include the HKMA, the Securities and Futures Commission, the BIS Innovation Hub Hong Kong Centre, the CBDC Expert Group, as well as seven private sector entities such as Bank of China (Hong Kong), Hang Seng Bank, HSBC, Standard Chartered Hong Kong, HashKey Group, Ant Digital Technologies, and Microsoft Hong Kong.
The formation of the Community reflects careful considerations of members’ expertise in contributing to Hong Kong’s tokenisation market development, their experience and competency in relevant fields, and their innovative capabilities. The HKMA emphasizes its commitment to working closely with the industry and indicates its readiness to review the size and composition of the Community as deemed appropriate.
In a statement regarding the initiative, Edmond Lau, Senior Executive Director (Financial Infrastructure) of the HKMA, highlighted the significance of collaboration in driving innovation: “The establishment of the Project Ensemble Architecture Community represents a critical milestone in our collective effort to advance Hong Kong’s tokenisation market. By bringing together diverse expertise from across various sectors, we aim to foster interoperability and drive innovation in the evolving landscape of digital finance.”
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