Banque de France and HKMA Collaborate to Enhance CBDC Cross-Border Payments

The
Banque
de
France
(BDF)
and
the
Hong
Kong
Monetary
Authority
(HKMA)
have
announced
a
significant
collaboration
to
advance
wholesale
central
bank
digital
currency
(CBDC)
solutions,
according
to
the
Hong
Kong
Monetary
Authority.
This
partnership
aims
to
explore
new
cross-border
payment
opportunities
and
enhance
financial
innovation.

Strengthening
Financial
Innovation

The
BDF
and
the
HKMA
have
maintained
a
close
relationship
in
promoting
financial
innovation.
The
latest
collaboration
marks
the
HKMA’s
participation
in
Wave
2
of
the
European
Central
Bank
(ECB)’s
Eurosystem
exploratory
work.
This
initiative
represents
a
major
milestone,
as
it
is
the
first
time
a
central
banking
institution
outside
the
Eurosystem
has
participated
in
such
an
endeavor.
The
two
institutions
recently
signed
a
Memorandum
of
Understanding
(MoU),
which
signifies
a
significant
step
forward
in
bilateral
cooperation
to
foster
innovation
in
wholesale
CBDC
and
the
tokenisation
market.

Interoperability
and
Efficiency

The
collaboration
will
focus
on
studying
the
interoperability
between
their
respective
CBDC
infrastructures—BDF’s
DL3S
and
HKMA’s
Project
Ensemble
Sandbox.
The
main
goal
is
to
enhance
real-time
cross-border
and
cross-currency
payments.
The
cross-border
experiment
aims
to
optimize
settlement
efficiency
and
facilitate
interoperability
between
financial
market
infrastructures
in
different
jurisdictions.
This
initiative
is
expected
to
lay
the
groundwork
for
further
advancements
in
tokenisation
and
new
technologies.

Statements
from
Officials

Denis
Beau,
First
Deputy
Governor
of
the
BDF,
emphasized
the
objective
of
improving
cross-border
payments.
He
highlighted
the
opportunity
presented
by
the
Eurosystem
exploratory
work
to
collaborate
with
the
HKMA
on
various
use
cases
for
payment
versus
payment
between
the
tokenised
forms
of
the
Hong
Kong
dollar
and
the
Euro.
Beau
remarked,
“The
HKMA’s
recent
announcement
for
the
launch
of
Project
Ensemble
was
very
timely
to
initiate
this
cooperation.
We
look
forward
to
further
testing
our
DL3S
platform
in
this
context
and
hope
that
together
we
can
facilitate
the
financial
inclusion
expected
from
enhanced
cross-border
payments.”

Howard
Lee,
Deputy
Chief
Executive
of
the
HKMA,
pointed
out
the
vast
potential
for
collaboration
between
France
and
Hong
Kong,
particularly
in
the
Fintech
sector.
Lee
stated,
“The
HKMA
announced
Project
Ensemble
early
this
year
to
explore
innovative
financial
market
infrastructure
that
will
facilitate
seamless
interbank
settlement
of
tokenised
money
through
wholesale
CBDC.
With
the
collaboration
between
BDF’s
DL3S
and
the
HKMA’s
Project
Ensemble
Sandbox
underway,
we
look
forward
to
joining
hands
with
the
BDF
to
further
explore
different
cross-border
payment
solutions
and
use
cases,
to
promote
financial
market
connectivity
and
push
forward
the
development
of
the
global
tokenisation
market.”

Mr.
Howard
Lee
(left),
Deputy
Chief
Executive
of
the
Hong
Kong
Monetary
Authority,
meets
Mr.
Denis
Beau
(right),
First
Deputy
Governor
of
the
Banque
de
France,
in
Paris
to
exchange
views
and
discuss
cross-border
collaboration
opportunities.

For
more
details,
visit
the
official

Hong
Kong
Monetary
Authority
website.

Image
source:
Shutterstock