Hong Kong’s bond tokenization efforts yield ‘significant operational improvements’

1 year ago

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) said that blockchain-based bonds person showcased the imaginable for “significant operational improvements” successful the bonds market, the South China Morning Post reported.

Hong Kong’s cardinal slope issued HK$800 cardinal worthy of blockchain-based greenish bonds nether a tokenization inaugural launched successful February called Project Evergreen. The task utilized distributed ledger exertion (DLT) to contented and commercialized the integer bonds.

The HKMA said Project Evergreen revealed that tokenization and DLT could destruct the intrinsic inefficiencies inherent successful accepted fiscal systems.

Benefits of tokenization

The HKMA wrote successful Project Evergreen’s decision study that accepted enslaved issuance is simply a analyzable process requiring aggregate organizations to interact with respective systems to negociate issuance, settlement, payment, and redemption. The process is sluggish and susceptible to errors, which means adjacent much clip is needed to guarantee accuracy.

However, integer bonds issued via DLT trim that complexity by “bringing unneurotic each the antithetic parties onto 1 communal platform,” which successful crook improves the wide efficiency.

The HKMA added that DLT provides “an immutable azygous root of truth” for the bonds, fundamentally creating a accordant and tamper-proof record.

The regulator said that DLT’s capableness allows contiguous and concurrent settlement, importantly diminishing imaginable risks and latencies. It besides highlighted the imaginable for secondary trading of integer bonds connected DLT platforms and said it could heighten liquidity and transparency.

However, allowing secondary trading involves assorted technological and ineligible issues that request to beryllium ironed retired and would besides necessitate these platforms to clasp securities licenses.

Hurdles to adoption

The tokenization of accepted fiscal assets specified arsenic bonds is inactive successful its “infancy,” and wide adoption is hampered by assorted hurdles, specified arsenic the deficiency of interoperability betwixt antithetic DLT platforms and accepted fiscal systems.

HKMA main enforcement Eddie Yue Wai-man wrote successful the report:

“Despite the expanding fig of issuances globally successful caller years, enslaved tokenisation is inactive astatine its infancy; aggregate challenges would person to beryllium flooded for it to beryllium wide adopted.”

The study besides noted that contempt the intrinsic usage of DLT successful Project Evergreen, immoderate of the processes to contented the integer bonds were inactive paper-based owed to the quality of the system.

The HKMA said that galore of these established processes request to beryllium overhauled to accommodate the digitization of fiscal assets. Additionally, laws and regulations request to beryllium “fine-tuned.”

The station Hong Kong’s enslaved tokenization efforts output ‘significant operational improvements’ appeared archetypal connected CryptoSlate.

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