The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) and the Bank of Thailand (BOT) entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to foster collaboration between the two regulatory authorities in promoting financial innovation.
Under the agreement, HKMA and BOT agreed to work together on referral of innovative businesses, information and experience sharing, and joint innovation projects.
One potential collaboration under consideration is a joint research project on Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), to which the two authorities may apply the knowledge and experience they gained from their respective CBDC research studies, namely Project LionRock by HKMA and Project Inthanon by BOT.
Project LionRock by HKMA was a collaboration with three note-issuing banks in Hong Kong as a study to better understand whether CBDC on distributed ledger technology (DLT) is feasible for interbank payments, corporate payments, and delivery-versus-payment of debt securities settlement.
Meanwhile Thailand’s Project Inthanon was a collaboration with R3 and eight banks to create a proof-of-concept or domestic wholesale fund transfer using wholesale CBDC—in a bid to grow Thailand’s financial infrastructure.
Norman Chan, Chief Executive of the HKMA said:
“The HKMA and BOT are long-time partners in a number of important financial initiatives.”
“The signing of this MoU not only demonstrates our mutual interests in developing collaborative fintech initiatives, but also underlines our on-going efforts in cross-border collaboration between central banks in promoting innovation and enhancing experience sharing.”
Veerathai Santiprabhob, Governor of BOT said:
“I believe there is huge potential to enhance quality of financial services by leveraging on technological advancement, and it is our responsibilities as regulators to create an ecosystem that is conducive to innovations.”
“The BOT looks forward to working closely with the HKMA in turning great ideas into innovative practical solutions that will ultimately improve people’s lives.”
Featured image via Bank of Thailand
