Two central banks announced the launch of wholesale digital central bank currency (wCBDC) pilot projects — the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) unveiled Project Ensemble, and the Governor of the Central Bank of the Philippines (BSP) revealed Project Agila.
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) announced the launch of Project Ensemble, a pilot project for a wholesale central bank digital currency (wCBDC) that will boost the tokenization market in the region.
Project Ensemble aims to explore an innovative financial market infrastructure (FMI) that will facilitate seamless interbank settlement matching through digital assets and wCBDCs. The project will focus on tokenized deposits of commercial banks, which are expected to be used in interbank transactions with wCBDCs as a settlement medium. At the heart of Project Ensemble is the wCBDC sandbox, which the HKMA will launch this year to explore further and test tokenization scenarios, including the settlement of tokenized real-world assets (RWA).
According to Eddie Yue, Chief Executive of the HKMA, the project is designed to inject new momentum into Hong Kong’s financial industry and strengthen the region’s leadership in tokenization. He also noted that the regulator is planning a “live” trial of wCBDCs in case of high interest from local financial institutions.
The HKMA reported late last year that it moved on to the second round of retail CBDC trials.
The launch of the wholesale CBDC pilot project was also revealed by Mamerto Tangonan, BSP Deputy Governor for Payments and Currency Management Sector. The project was initially named Project CBDC-Ph and was supposed to be launched in 2022, but it never took off. Tangonan announced that the initiative was renamed Project Agila and would be completed by the end of 2024.
The Philippines’ wCBDC will be digital money denominated in the national unit of account and will be a direct obligation of the Central Bank. Project Agila will test the wholesale use of the CBDC for interbank and cross-border payments and securities transactions by commercial banks and other financial institutions.
Six financial institutions are participating in the pilot project, namely:
- BDO Unibank, Inc.;
- China Banking Corp.;
- Land Bank of the Philippines;
- Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation;
- Union Bank of the Philippines;
- Maya Philippines, Inc.
Central banks of many countries are studying the possibility of issuing wholesale CBDCs. The Swiss National Bank (SNB) is the most active in this area. It launched a pilot project wCBDC at the beginning of this year and tested it before in the settlements of securities transactions.
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