Exclusive | Hong Kong Monetary Authority will launch trials to find suitable use for proposed digital dollar, CEO Eddie Yue says
- ‘If we want the public to adopt the e-HKD, we need to have a suitable use case that can show that the CBDC is superior or more convenient, or cheaper,’ HKMA CEO says
- The e-HKD will not have conflicts with the three note-issuing banks as the HKMA wants the banks to be distributors of the digital currency
“Hong Kong’s electronic retail payment system is already very diverse, very convenient and very cheap. If we want the public to adopt the e-HKD, we need to have a suitable use case that can show that the CBDC is superior or more convenient, or cheaper,” Yue said in an interview with the Post.
Hong Kong already has a number of digital payment options such as Octopus, WeChat Pay and Alipay among others.
Yue said the e-HKD is a digital form of banknotes, which can be used in different digital scenarios, such as transactions of tokenised assets.
“When we see more innovation in blockchain, there could be new applications of central bank digital currency that we may not be aware of now, but that might come up in future.”
To support the e-HKD as legal tender, the HKMA in the fourth quarter will prepare to propose a law change, and establish the necessary technology infrastructure to support it. Once these are finalised, the bank will determine the exact launch date.