Banque de France (BDF) and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) announced a collaboration in the field of wholesale central bank digital currencies (wCBDC) and asset tokenization. The joint research aims to improve cross-border transactions and enhance settlement efficiency.
Banque de France (BDF) and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to promote innovations in the areas of wholesale CBDCs and asset tokenization. The goal of this cooperation is to optimize settlements for cross-border transactions and ensure interoperability between financial infrastructures across different jurisdictions.
As part of this collaboration, the BDF and the HKMA plan to explore the interaction between their respective infrastructure projects used for CBDC processing. Specifically, this includes the DL3S platform of Banque de France and the Project Ensemble sandbox of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. The main focus will be on conducting real-time cross-border cross-currency payments using tokenized assets and wholesale CBDCs.
According to the MoU, the BDF and the HKMA agreed to enhance communication and cooperation, laying the foundation for future projects in the areas of asset tokenization and innovative financial technologies. The initiative aims to improve financial inclusion and increase the efficiency of international payments.
Denis Beau, First Deputy Governor of the BDF, says that the bank plans to test the potential of the DL3S platform in various payment scenarios using tokenized Hong Kong dollars and euros. Howard Lee, Deputy Chief Executive of the HKMA, noted that the primary potential of the collaboration between the central banks of France and Hong Kong lies in the FinTech sector.
It’s worth noting that both the HKMA and the BDF also participate in other international projects aimed at exploring innovative financial technologies. For example, the regulators are involved in pilot projects testing distributed ledger technology (DLT) initiated by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS).
The development of Hong Kong’s CBDC is ongoing since 2021. In early 2023, a pilot project for the retail digital Hong Kong dollar (e-HKD) was launched, which moved to a new testing phase by the end of the year. In 2024, the HKMA launched Project Ensemble to test the wholesale CBDC, creating a special community for the development of tokenization standards.
