Hong Kong – September 23, 2024 – China Construction Bank (Asia) Corporation Limited ("CCB (Asia)") announced its participation in the Hong Kong Monetary Authority’s (“HKMA”) “Digital HKD” Pilot Scheme Phase Two. This phase will further investigate the programmability and unique value of the digital HKD (e-HKD). Additionally, the HKMA has expanded the project’s scope, renaming it as “Digital HKD+” (e-HKD+), to explore innovative use cases for digital HKD and tokenized deposits for individuals and enterprises.

CCB (Asia) successfully completed the first phase trial of the “programmable payment-advance service” use case under the “Digital HKD” in October 2023. This trial employed the programmability of simulated digital HKD and smart contracts to solve the issue of fund supervision in traditional advance services, demonstrating the potential of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) to address these pain points. Based on the accomplishments and experience from the first phase, CCB (Asia) will delve deeper into assessing different blockchain infrastructures and test the large-scale implementation of programmable advance payments with merchants in the second phase.

Ms. Chen Liming, Vice President of CCB (Asia), stated: “We are honored to participate in the second phase of the HKMA’s ‘Digital HKD’ Pilot Scheme. We will deepen our research on the ‘programmable payment-advance service’ use case from the first phase, fully testing the large-scale implementation of programmable advance payments. During the trial, we will continue to address pain points in advance services and refine the solution based on important feedback from participants. CCB (Asia) will leverage its strengths to support the HKMA in promoting CBDC innovation, jointly advancing the future development of digital payments in Hong Kong.”

In March this year, the HKMA invited the industry to submit innovative use cases for the second phase of the “Digital HKD” Pilot Scheme. Building on the referential outcomes and key experiences from the first phase, this phase will deepen the exploration of the programmability, tokenization, and real-time settlement of “Digital HKD,” and explore new use cases not included in the first phase. The HKMA noted that the second phase is expected to last about one year, providing sufficient time for participating institutions to test and evaluate their proposed use cases.