Ant International has completed live Hong Kong dollar interbank transactions with three banks under the Hong Kong Monetary Authority’s (HKMA) EnsembleTX initiative.

The company said transfers took less than five minutes to complete, supporting round-the-clock liquidity management in Hong Kong.

EnsembleTX is the pilot phase of the HKMA’s Project Ensemble, which enables real-value transactions using tokenised deposits. These are commercial bank deposits represented as digital tokens on a blockchain, allowing faster transfers and settlement.

Ant International carried out the transactions between September and October 2026 with Bank of China (Hong Kong) (BOCHK), China Construction Bank (Asia) (CCB (Asia)) and HSBC.

The transactions included transfers between BOCHK and CCB (Asia), alongside separate interbank transactions involving CCB (Asia) and HSBC.

The announcement followed the HKMA’s confirmation on 2 November that EnsembleTX supports 24/7 interbank settlement of tokenised deposits using tokenised central bank money.

WhaleRTP enables faster interbank transfers

Ant International initiated the transactions through WhaleRTP, its blockchain-based wholesale settlement platform, with settlement conducted using central bank money.

According to the company, the system automated transaction execution and improved real-time cash management in Hong Kong.

It also reduced the need to pre-fund liquidity transfers, lowering the company’s working capital requirements.

Ant International plans next phase of agentic treasury

Ant International plans to build on EnsembleTX by developing agentic treasury capabilities, where AI agents can make and execute treasury decisions automatically.

The move follows the launch of its AI-native product suite in September, which includes AI-enabled foreign exchange and treasury solutions.

One component, FalconTST, uses AI to forecast foreign exchange exposure and cash flow.

“By pairing real-time intelligence from FalconTST with WhaleRTP’s proven settlement layer, AI agents can now make and execute decisions in continuous, automated flows,”

said Kelvin Li, General Manager of Platform Tech and Senior Vice President at Ant International.

“Together, they close the loop: the agent decides, and WhaleRTP executes,”

he added.

Ant International has participated in the Ensemble Sandbox since 2024 and joined the Project Ensemble Architecture Community in 2025.

The company was among the early participants to complete live cross-bank transactions under EnsembleTX. It also launched a tokenised deposit solution with HSBC in 2025.

Featured image credit: Edited by Fintech News Hong Kong, based on image by design25boss via Magnific