Hong Kong Launches CBDC Trials With 16 Firms
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) today (18 May) announced the commencement of the e-HKD Pilot Programme. A total of 16 firms from the financial, payment and technology sectors have been selected to participate in the first round of pilots for 2023. The pilots will take deep dives into potential use cases in six categories, including full-fledged payments, programmable payments, offline payments, tokenised deposits, settlement of Web3 transactions and settlement of tokenised assets.
The e-HKD Pilot Programme is a key component of Rail 2 under the HKMA’s three-rail approach in paving the way for the possible implementation of a retail central bank digital currency (CBDC), i.e. e-HKD, in the future. Under the Pilot Programme, the HKMA will conduct a series of pilots in close collaboration with various stakeholders to examine the use cases, as well as implementation and design issues relating to e-HKD. Through this iterative process, the outcomes and insights gained from each pilot would help enrich the HKMA’s perspective and refine the HKMA’s approach to the possible implementation of e-HKD. The HKMA is not yet at a point where a firm decision can be made to introduce e-HKD.
