Hong Kong sandbox ramps up asset tokenisation

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has launched the Project Ensemble Sandbox and introduced four main themes of asset tokenisation use cases for the initial round of experimentation, marking a step forward in the advancement of tokenisation in real-world application within the financial sector. The themes are:

• Fixed income and investment funds.
• Liquidity management.
• Green and sustainable finance.
• Trade and supply chain finance.

The HKMA has completed the building and setup of the Sandbox, which is designed to facilitate interbank settlement using experimental tokenised money, focusing on transactions involving tokenised assets. Participating banks from the Project Ensemble Architecture Community (the Community) have connected their tokenised deposit platforms to the Sandbox, paving the way to conduct experiments for both interbank payment-versus-payment and delivery-versus-payment settlement.

An appropriate regulatory framework is essential to support the sustainable development of the tokenised asset market in Hong Kong. The Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), a key member of the Community, plays a crucial role in helping to develop a regulatory framework that will support the sustainable growth of the tokenised asset market in Hong Kong.  In addition, the SFC will be co-leading with HKMA on tokenisation initiatives for the asset management industry to promote wider adoption and ultimately enhance Hong Kong’s position as a premier asset and wealth management centre. 

On the international front, the HKMA will also explore collaborating with the BIS Innovation Hub Hong Kong Centre across one or more themes, and engage the CBDC Expert Group to leverage their subject matter expertise to further advance the Sandbox.

Ant International is one of the firms to participate in the Sandbox, focusing on the ‘liquidity management' theme. The company will leverage its Whale platform to participate in the Sandbox and develop an innovative use case with its partners - Standard Chartered Hong Kong and HSBC - to develop a global liquidity management solution that allows banks to connect to and exchange their tokens, by leveraging its Whale platform. This will allow cross-border payments to be conducted around the clock in real-time.

On the trade and supply chain finance theme, Global Shipping Business Network (GSBN), a not-for-profit consortium, has joined the Sandbox to test its electronic Bill of Lading (eBL) tokenisation use case with Ant Digital Technologies and conduct interbank atomic settlement of tokenised deposits between HSBC and Hang Seng Bank. Under Project Ensemble, eBLs are issued over GSBN’s blockchain infrastructure which also facilitates trade finance activities between corporates and financial institutions. These eBLs are tokenised by Ant Digital Technologies and wrapped on their own blockchain to enable trade finance payments to flow through via tokenised deposit and wCBDC.

 

Numeral and HSBC Innovation Banking collaborate on embedded payments

Payment technology provider Numeral and HSBC Innovation Banking UK have announced a collaboration to enable companies to embed the bank’s payment and account services via Numeral APIs. The offering is available to companies who are clients of both firms.

Payments and operations, including corporate payments and treasury operations, are core to the customer experience of many innovative companies’ services, including fintechs, insurtechs and marketplaces. To support these companies, the Numeral platform now integrates with HSBC Innovation Banking UK’s cash management infrastructure. This enables users to send and receive UK Bacs, CHAPS and FPS payments, and SEPA and Swift payments. In addition, companies can access their HSBC Innovation Banking UK account balances and transactions data in real-time.

Insurtech Qover is working with the pair to improve the claim payout experience. Having made significant investments to streamline its end-to-end claim processing, Qover is relying on HSBC Innovation Banking UK and Numeral for its last mile: the claim payout process.

“When claims are paid, customers benefit from the safety net an insurance policy provides,” said Ed Ackerman, Chief Customer Officer at Qover. “At Qover, we see the claims journey as the moment of truth for customers. We therefore decided to fundamentally reshape the claim experience, leveraging AI at key stages such as claim submission and review. By integrating with HSBC Innovation Banking UK through Numeral’s API, we can automatically initiate claim payouts as soon as they are approved, and track these payouts in real-time. Customers receive their payouts much faster and Qover’s operations have been streamlined.” 

 

Stripe boosts cross-border commerce in Asia with AI-powered payments

Stripe, a financial infrastructure platform for businesses, has announced that its Optimized Checkout Suite, which enables businesses to build a high-performing checkout flow, now uses AI to determine which payment methods to show for any given customer. Businesses can also run no-code A/B tests for payment methods.

These features complement Stripe’s new Adaptive Pricing feature, which localises prices across 150 markets, including Australia, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, and Thailand, allowing customers to pay in their local currency. Adaptive pricing removes the need for businesses to manually price in multiple currencies and keep up with fluctuating exchange rates. Stripe research shows that 90% of customers choose to check out in their local currency when given the option. Businesses that use this feature experience a 17.8% increase in cross-border revenue and an 8% uplift in conversion, on average.

Stripe has also introduced AI-powered tools to help combat fraud, including Radar Assistant. Businesses can use natural language prompts to describe new fraud rules they’d like to set, and the assistant will draft rules accordingly. The rules can then be tested against previous payments to see if they boost revenue and block fraud without increasing false positives.

 

Linklogis acquires Bytter to develop a treasury management ecosystem in China

Linklogis intends to acquire the shares to become the controlling shareholder of Bytter, a treasury management solutions firm. This strategic acquisition aims to integrate the core strengths of both companies in treasury management and supply chain finance technology, jointly assisting customers in building financial management platforms and advancing intelligent treasury management systems for state-owned enterprises and large-and-middle-sized private enterprises.

Since its establishment in 2000, Bytter has specialised in providing treasury management solutions for enterprises. Bytter was listed on the over-the-counter trading platform operated by the National Equities Exchange and Quotations Co. As a national high-tech enterprise, Bytter offers a range of solutions, including group treasury management systems and core business systems for finance companies. 

Bytter possesses the technical implementation capabilities for all 11 treasury function modules required by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (SASAC) and has assisted over 1,500 enterprises in achieving digital transformation in treasury management.

As a supply chain finance technology solution provider in China, Linklogis says it is dedicated to facilitating the ecological interconnection of “industry chain - transaction flow - finance.” In recent years, the company has won the bidding for comprehensive supply chain platforms of state-owned enterprises and leading private enterprises. 

“With the rapid evolution of digital information technology, treasury management is shifting from traditional cash management to advanced treasury systems focused on value creation and strategic guidance,” commented Hu Defang, the founder and chairman of Bytter. “Through this acquisition transaction, we will partner with Linklogis to enhance our expertise in treasury management and drive the digital transformation and reform of enterprises, aiming to provide efficient, secure, and intelligent treasury management solutions to our customers.”

 

Swedish investment platform SAVR accelerates with Brite Payments

Swedish investment platform SAVR has integrated Brite Instant Payments, enabling customers to make larger direct money transfers into their accounts quickly and securely.

The fund trading platform offers 1,700 popular funds at reduced prices. Due to its transparent pricing model, the Stockholm-based company has scaled to over 100,000 users. With the launch of stock and ETF trading planned for later this year, SAVR intends to evolve into a full-scale investment platform.

Through Brite Instant Payments, the platform’s customers can use BankID to authenticate direct transfers of larger sums of money than previously possible into their accounts, reducing the need for manual data entry, and speeding up the time it takes to complete payment. User experience is optimised with Brite’s ‘Single Sign’ authentication solution.