Bangkok--29 Oct--HSBC
HSBC is leveraging the blockchain technology to develop proof-of-concepts to enhance the inter-bank payments and settlements infrastructure both domestic and cross-border with various central banks and regulators around the world.
HSBC has recently entered an agreement with seven other domestic and hybrid banks in Thailand in support of Bank of Thailand's (BOT) Wholesale Central Bank Digital Currency initiative known as Project Inthanon.
Inthanon is a collaborative effort led by the BOT and the technology company R3 to explore the implications and the potential benefits of Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) to enhance efficiency of the Thai financial market infrastructure. Examples of markets we have worked in are Monetary Authority of Singapore (Project Ubin), Hong Kong Monetary Authority (Project LionRock) and Bank of Canada (Project Jasper).
"HSBC celebrates our 130th anniversary in Thailand this year and we see this as an exciting development in the market as the outcome and insights from Project Inthanon will contribute to the design of Thailand's future financial markets infrastructure. Said Kelvin Tan, HSBC Thailand CEO. " We are very honoured to be the international bank in Thailand represented in Project Inthanon; we look to leverage our involvement globally in central banks' Central Bank Digital Currency projects having worked closely with Canada, Hong Kong, Singapore and now Thailand regulators."
Country Head of Global Liquidity and Cash Management Ai Chen Lim represents HSBC on the steering committee of Project Inthanon and shared "The collaborative nature of this initiative makes it a very interesting journey for all participants given the paradigm shift with distributed ledger technology. Inthanon will see us collaboratively develop a proof of concept with a leading block chain technology; HSBC team will include colleagues from our Global Innovation and Client Solutions team from our Innovation Laboratory in Singapore as well as Applied Innovation team based in Hong Kong. The Innovation Lab was set up in 2015 in partnership with the Monetary Authority of Singapore to explore the use of emerging technologies in the payments and cash management space.
HSBC continues to evaluate, monitor and invest in emerging technologies like blockchain to leverage these for the benefit of our customers around the globe. In May 2018, HSBC made the world's first commercial trade finance transaction using R3 Corda blockchain technology by issuing a Letter of Credit for international food and agricultural conglomerate Cargill."