In the initial phase, the Tokenised Deposit Service will support treasury management with real-time, always-on HKD and USD payments between corporate wallets held by a client at HSBC Hong Kong. Built on HSBC’s own network and technologies, the new infrastructure establishes a robust foundation for enhancing the Bank’s digital money capabilities. It also supports settlement requirements for tokenisation use cases, including those being explored under Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA)’s Project Ensemble1.
Ant International has become the first client to adopt the service. HSBC has supported Ant International to successfully complete an instant fund transfer between its entities through tokenisation of their deposits. The transaction, initiated by Ant International through its internal global treasury management platform (Whale platform2), brings improved transparency, flexibility and efficiency to its liquidity management.
The design of Tokenised Deposit Service draws inspiration from HSBC and Ant International’s longstanding collaboration on the co-development of blockchain-based payment and tokenised deposit solutions. It follows the successful HKD-denominated cross-bank experiment between HSBC and Ant International under HKMA’s Ensemble Sandbox in October 2024. The experiment provided insights into using tokenised deposits to facilitate real-time cross-bank corporate treasury management through the Ensemble interoperability platform.
Lewis Sun, Global Head of Domestic and Emerging Payments, Global Payments Solutions, HSBC, said: “Tokenised deposits, when supported by regulated financial institutions, can offer a safe and fully compliant approach to improving payments and cash management for corporates. We are pleased to launch the Tokenised Deposit Service in Hong Kong, an international financial centre committed to driving digital money innovation. This service sets a new benchmark for efficiency and innovation in digital money solutions for corporates. We will continue to enhance our capabilities to enable Tokenised Deposit Service across markets, leveraging the ability of programmability and atomic settlement features of tokenisation to deliver tangible benefits for our clients.”
Kelvin Li, General Manager of Platform Tech, Ant International, said: “We are proud to extend our partnership with HSBC, following our collaboration under Project Ensemble last year. HSBC shares our commitment to redefine the future of liquidity management through innovation, technology and collaboration. We believe that tokenisation is the key to bridge the stability of traditional banking, with the efficiency of blockchain. Through industry public-private collaborations and by working with leading partners, we aim to unlock more transparent, accessible and efficient treasury management solutions for businesses worldwide.”
Building on HSBC’s active involvement in Project Ensemble, the Tokenised Deposit Service is designed to integrate with, and support HKMA’s tokenisation and digital money infrastructure development. The strategic alignment paves the way for broader adoption of tokenisation and digital money across Hong Kong’s financial ecosystem, driving and shaping the future of payments.
The Service also marks the first live pilot initiative supported by HKMA’s Supervisory Incubator for Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT). Through this supervisory arrangement, HSBC seeks to demonstrate how banks can harness the advantages of DLT and manage its associated risks.
HSBC is also among the first group of financial institutions to have completed proof-of-concept (PoC) use cases under HKMA’s Project Ensemble. The use cases aimed to demonstrate the feasibility of exchange of tokenised deposits and digital assets, as well as the transfer of tokenised deposit between blockchains of different financial institutions.
