HKMA establishes the Project Ensemble Architecture Community

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has announced the establishment of the Project Ensemble Architecture Community, a collaborative effort with industry stakeholders to shape standards and provide guidance for the development of Hong Kong’s tokenisation market. The primary objective of the Community is to create industry standards that promote interoperability among wholesale Central Bank Digital Currency (wCBDC), tokenised money, and tokenised assets. Initially, the focus will be on establishing a mechanism to enable seamless interbank settlement of tokenised deposits using wCBDC for tokenised asset transactions. Additionally, the Community will contribute to the design and implementation of the Project Ensemble Sandbox, which is set to launch around mid-2024 to facilitate further research and testing of tokenisation use cases. The Community comprises a diverse range of industry representatives from various domains, including regulators, international organisations, academia, local and multinational banks, digital asset industry leaders, and technology companies. The founding 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 selection of Community members was based on factors such as their expertise in contributing to the development of Hong Kong’s tokenisation market, their experience and competence in relevant fields, and their innovative capabilities. The HKMA will maintain close collaboration with the industry and periodically review the size and composition of the Community as necessary. Resources: https://www.hkma.gov.hk/eng/news-and-media/press-releases/2024/05/20240507-4/