Digital Money - Driving the Future of Finance in Hong Kong
Webinar synopsis
In August 2024, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (“HKMA”) launched Project Ensemble to support the development of the tokenisation market in Hong Kong. There have already been several successful tokenised product offerings, but with payments made off-chain.
Project Ensemble is designed to facilitate on-chain payments using digital money for tokenisation transactions, a first step in developing digital financial market infrastructures (FMIs) which allow for atomic settlement on DLT blockchain. Digital money is simply cash in a digital form, offering speed, security, and programmability. It is also decentralised, and potentially free of agency, bank and credit risk.
At a hybrid webinar for clients on 24 October 2024 on “Digital Money – Driving the Future of Finance in Hong Kong”, Capital Markets Partner Chong Liew moderated an expert panel comprising Partners Andrew Malcolm and I-Ping Soong, and Knowledge Lawyer Carolyn Sng in a discussion on the forms of digital money in Hong Kong (namely, tokenised deposits, stablecoins and CBDCs), and the key Hong Kong legal and regulatory issues in relation to the use and development of digital money. The discussion did not consider other forms of digital payment mediums such as cryptocurrencies and stored value systems. This note is a synopsis of the key issues discussed at the webinar.
