Euroclear has joined Project Ensemble, the wholesale central bank digital currency (wCBDC) initiative from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA). The project explores using wCBDC for the settlement of tokenization transactions and for interbank settlement of tokenized deposits. Euroclear becomes a member of the Architecture Community and is the sole financial market infrastructure (FMI) community participant, although Hong Kong’s CMU is involved in some of the use cases.
Euroclear’s role is to help to develop interoperability standards between central bank money, tokenized deposits and tokenized assets. In May last year it helped developed a global framework for digital assets, produced by the three largest securities FMIs, Clearstream, DTCC, and Euroclear.
“Euroclear’s participation in Project Ensemble is a testament to our strategic focus on the Asia-Pacific region,” said Philippe Laurensy, CEO Asia Pacific Euroclear. “By collaborating with key stakeholders in the Hong Kong tokenisation market, we are exploring new opportunities for innovation and market growth. This initiative will allow us to harness cutting edge technology to develop solutions that benefit the marketplace by fostering a more interconnected financial ecosystem.”
Project Ensemble was unveiled a year ago, with the sandbox launching in August with regulators and a tight group of seven participants, including four banks HSBC, Standard Chartered (Hong Kong), Bank of China (Hong Kong) and Hang Seng Bank. Other initial Architecture participants are Microsoft Hong Kong, Ant Digital Technologies (ADT) and Hashkey Group. JP Morgan joined in October and new technology members include R3 and WeBank Technology Services.
Additionally, the community members are engaging with a broader ecosystem of participants across four topics: fixed income and funds, liquidity including repo and treasury, sustainable finance and trade finance. Some of the latest additions to the broader ecosystem include Northern Trust, Bosera Asset Management, Fosun Wealth, Solowin Holdings and CR Longdation.
