The Hong Kong Monetary Authority Wants to Expand DLT Usage in Trade Finance With Abu Dhabi

Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), the city’s de facto central bank, is preparing to work with government bodies in Abu Dhabi to create a cross-border trade financial structure that is developed with distributed ledger technology (DLT).

On Tuesday, the HKMA signed a fintech co-operation deal with the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) of the Abu Dhabi Global Market, which oversees the financial market of the U.A.E.’s.

The HKMA stated within the co-operation contract, it will work together with the FSRA to create revolutionary financial technology projects, with a particular attention concentrating on DLT usage in international trade finance.

The Chief fintech officer of the HKMA, Nelson Chow, said in the announcement:

“We are very happy to commence a discussion with FSRA on the chance to develop a cross-border trade financial network utilizing distributed ledger technology.”

The first plan occurs during a period when the HKMA has already begun identical works with its counterpart in Singapore, even though the HKMA has not provided information on what system the prospective pilot may be developed on.

As formerly reported by CoinDesk, the HKMA and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) have commenced the examination of a Hong Kong Trade Finance Platform (HKTFP),  an HKMA-led and DLT-based trade finance proof-of-concept since last year.

The statement stated back then that more than 20 global banks and financial establishments joined the test in an attempt to enhance the proof-of-concept to industrial production, which was anticipated to be set by the start of 2019.