Hong Kong’s multiple central bank digital currency (m-CBDC) project is “going on very smoothly” and the aim is to commercialize the prototype developed and enhance cross-border payments, said Eddie Yue, chief executive of Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA).
Yue was speaking together with Agustín Carstens, general manager of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) at a virtual event hosted by the Hong Kong Academy of Finance this week to launch the BIS Annual Economic Report in Asia. BIS recently released a report that includes a special chapter on “CBDCs: an opportunity for the monetary system.”
The HKMA, together with the BIS Innovation Hub in Hong Kong as well as the central banks of China, the United Arab Emirates and Thailand have been collaborating on a wholesale m-CBDC bridge project — intended for financial institutions — using distributed ledger technology to support real-time cross-border payments on a 24/7 basis.
