Today the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) published the results of its first phase of central bank digital currency (CBDC) pilots involving 16 institutions. Given Hong Kong already has sophisticated payment options, it found the most added value from various programmable payment applications. Additionally, it sees benefits for tokenization and atomic settlement. No decision has been made to launch a CBDC, so the trials used hypothetical eHKD.
A few banks have already shared the results of their pilots including Standard Chartered for offline eHKD and the Bank of China (Hong Kong) for programmable CBDC used for prepayments.
Other programmable payment trials included using the eHKD to enable smaller businesses to be able to afford loyalty programs. Separate pilots from Hang Seng Bank, HSBC and AlipayHK used smart contracts to enable the tracking of payments required for rewards and loyalty. Yet another programmable use case by AlipayHK and Hang Seng Bank was for disbursing government subsidies.
Article continues …
Want the full story? Pro subscribers get complete articles, exclusive industry analysis, and early access to legislative updates that keep you ahead of the competition. Join the professionals who are choosing deeper insights over surface level news.
