HSBC introduces tokenised deposit service in Hong Kong
Ant International today announced its collaboration with HSBC on the bank's new Tokenised Deposit Service in Hong Kong.
0
The service will support treasury management with real-time, always-on HKD and USD payments between corporate wallets held by a corporate client at HSBC Hong Kong. The Tokenised Deposit Service is also the first bank-led, blockchain-based settlement service in Hong Kong. The launch comes after a successful pilot test between HSBC and Ant International on Ant's Whale platform, which has been rolling out blockchain-based payments and tokenised deposits solutions with various bank partners.
Following the pilot test, HSBC adapted the learnings from the joint innovation into its Tokenised Deposit Service, with Ant International as the pioneer client. As the first client to utilise the Tokenised Deposit Service, Ant International has successfully completed an instant intra-group fund transfer via the service. It initiated the transaction via its internal global treasury management platform, the Whale platform, digitising its USD deposits with HSBC into digital tokens on the bank's secure distributed ledger.
One of the core products developed by the Platform Tech team under Ant International's Embedded Finance business, the Whale platform is a next-generation treasury management solution that utilises blockchain technology, including advanced encryption and AI, to improve the efficiency and transparency of funds transfer between Ant International's intragroup entities for real-time global treasury management. In 2024, more than a third of Ant International's transactions were processed on-chain via the Whale platform.
The Whale platform currently supports multiple tokenised assets from leading banks and institutions around the world, enabling interoperability across diverse blockchain networks. By leveraging leading DLT technologies such as homomorphic encryption and zero-knowledge proofs, the Whale platform encrypts transaction information and enables multi-party verification in an encrypted state, ensuring secure, confidential, and seamless cross-chain transactions.
Ant International's collaboration with HSBC on tokenised deposits expands a longstanding partnership since 2020. In October 2024, Ant International and HSBC also completed a successful HKD-denominated cross-bank experiment under the Hong Kong Monetary Authority's Ensemble Sandbox.
'We are very excited to work with an industry leader like HSBC, who shares the belief that tokenisation is the key to bridging the stability of traditional banking with the efficiency of blockchain, to enable real-time treasury management," said Kelvin Li, General Manager of Platform Tech at Ant International. 'As a tech connector in the fast-evolving financial services industry, our banking partnerships are expanding from tokenisation to AI-driven global FX and liquidity initiatives. We look forward to working with more public and private-sector partners to unlock more transparent, accessible and efficient treasury management solutions for businesses worldwide.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
Pro-Palestinian councillor shuns diversity award, claiming sponsor HSBC ‘funds genocide'
A pro-Palestinian councillor has refused to accept an award nomination after claiming its sponsor funds genocide in Gaza. Ismail Uddin accused HSBC of 'supporting the brutality and genocide against the Palestinian people' in a long post he self-published on the awards' own website. The National Diversity Awards, to be hosted by broadcaster Clare Balding in September, aims to 'honour the incredible achievements of individuals, community organisations, role models, entrepreneurs and celebrities' who 'strive to promote diversity and inclusion in all its forms', according to its website. HSBC is the headline sponsor and Coral Taylor, the bank's head of inclusion and diversity, is on its panel of judges, alongside TV personality and activist Katie Piper. Cllr Uddin, who sits on Bradford council as an independent, was nominated for the awards' age category by an unknown nominee. However, the councillor, who is understood to be in his early 20s, spurned the nomination and wrote a lengthy post in a personal statement, which the website allowed nominees to fill in themselves. He said: 'Throughout the multitude of global outcry to Israel's apartheid and invasions, HSBC continues to offer financial services, investments, and loans to corporations that manufacture the very weapons, military technology, and surveillance technologies against Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied territories.' Cllr Uddin previously photographs of himself attending a 'silent vigil for Palestine' on the first anniversary of the Oct 7 attacks. In his post he went on to accuse HSBC of 'plugging money' into 'maintaining Israel's illegal settlements'. He added: 'With these financial ties, HSBC is complicit in the violence and continued suffering of Palestinians. No bank should finance a genocide – full stop. 'I wholeheartedly reject this nomination and refuse to be associated with such companies that have no morals.' The post, which appeared to have been published in April, was taken down hours after The Telegraph approached the awards for a comment. A spokesman claimed this action was taken as scheduled this week for nominees who did not wish to be considered for an award, as the judging stage was reached. In a post published on his Instagram account in April, Cllr Uddin thanked his anonymous nominee for a 'beautiful statement' before explaining why he had rejected the nomination. Directing his 780 followers to a link to his profile page on the site, he wrote: 'You can read more about HSBC and their complicity here, where I've used the 'statement about yourself' part to tell them exactly why I'd rather utilise my day for something else.' HSBC is not the only bank to be targeted by pro-Palestine protesters. Barclays has faced heavy criticism for its alleged relationships with defence firms that produce equipment used by the Israeli Defense Forces. Dozens of its branches have been defaced and vandalised by pro-Palestine activists and customers have been urged to boycott the bank. On Saturday, thousands of pro-Palestine protesters took to the streets days in action against Israel's air strikes on Iran. Meanwhile, a spokesman for the National Diversity Awards said: 'Ismail Uddin was given a very positive nomination that highlighted his various achievements and was approved to proceed to the judging stage. As with all accepted nominees, we offered Cllr Uddin the opportunity to complete his profile for our website. 'As we reach the judging stage for the awards, as we have this week, any nominees who don't wish to be considered for an award are removed from the process and their profile withdrawn from the website. Cllr Uddin's profile can no longer be seen as a result.' A spokesman for HSBC declined to comment.
Metro
11 hours ago
- Metro
Credit card customers can save up to £1,679 with a simple debt ‘spring clean'
If you're one of the millions of Brits who have a credit card, you could be pouring hundreds – if not thousands – of pounds, down the drain. But a quick balance transfer could help you clear your debt faster and save money in the process. New research from TotallyMoney revealed that half (48.8%) of credit card customers are currently paying interest on their balances every month. And by making use of a balance transfer deal, the finance company claims they could save up to a whopping £1,679 each. A balance transfer means moving some or all of your credit card debt from one to a new provider offering 0% interest for a set time, currently up to 33 months. While there's usually a small transfer fee of around 3% or 4%, the interest savings can far outweigh this, adding up to a huge amount as the months go by. 'They're an effective way to cut costs, and you could start saving money before the start of summer,' Alastair Douglas, TotallyMoney CEO, says. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video According to TotallyMoney, the top balance transfer deals available right now are from Tesco Bank, HSBC and Barclaycard, each of which are offering 33 months interest free. A person with an average interest-bearing balance could avoid paying £1,679 by switching to the HSBC 33-month card. It has one of the lowest fees on the market at 3.19% too. The average saving with Tesco Bank is £1,675, but Alastair also notes that it comes with 0% interest on further money transfers for nine months, 'which you could use to clear expensive overdraft debt.' Barclaycard's 33-month deal comes with a slightly higher fee of 3.45%, meaning a typical customer could save £1,671. But, for those who want to skip fees entirely, the bank has a 14-month fee-free balance transfer card too, allowing successful applicants to save an estimated £753. Other providers, including Vanquis and Fluid, are next on the list with their balance transfer offers – 18 and nine months, respectively – which could help you cut your interest bill by £881 and £394. Bear in mind though, you'll need a good or excellent credit score to be accepted with these lenders – and making multiple applications can harm your credit – so it's best to check eligibility before submitting. More Trending Plus, although a balance transfer can be beneficial, it only saves you cash if you pay off as much of your debt as possible during the interest-free period. Personal finance expert at CredAbility, Aaron Peake, advises: 'If you're regularly carrying a balance month to month, switching cards might offer breathing room, but it's also worth using this time to build habits that help you avoid falling back into the same pattern. 'It's easy to focus on the interest-free period as a way to delay, but to make the most of it, you should treat it like a repayment deadline. Set yourself a realistic repayment plan and automate it if you can. Divide your balance by the number of months you've got interest-free and aim to clear it within that time.' Do you have a story to share? Get in touch by emailing MetroLifestyleTeam@ View More » MORE: 'Everyone asks what fragrance I'm wearing – it's this little-known niche perfume' MORE: Millions could be paying off debt well into retirement amid 'pension postcode lottery' MORE: Martin Lewis warns everyone with a mobile phone contract to check now for 'dodgy trick' Your free newsletter guide to the best London has on offer, from drinks deals to restaurant reviews.
The Independent
14 hours ago
- The Independent
The City's U-turn on WFH tells you everything you need to know about bad bosses
Barclays has taken overflow office space in Shoreditch. HSBC, having decided to relocate from Canary Wharf to new headquarters near St Paul's, is looking for extra room, including moving some workers back to Canary Wharf (and has told staff that their bonuses could be cut unless they're back in the office). JPMorgan and BBVA are finding accommodating everyone a tight squeeze. And BlackRock is also struggling to fit in all its staff. Some City firms are using a booking system, which sees those who wish to come to the office having to reserve a slot, such is the demand for desks. After three years, Citigroup has shut its Malaga outpost, billed as providing a better work-life balance for the bank's analysts, and steered its staff to London. What distinguishes all these financial corporations and others is that they claim to only recruit the brightest and the best. They make fortunes from advising the rest of us, along with businesses and governments, how to manage our affairs. On deals, they take command, devise strategy, issue orders and tell those involved how to behave. Yet when it comes to their own internal management, they are all over the place. We've seen it before, of course – the sector is littered with numerous instances of banks and investment houses being penalised huge sums for their poor conduct or for showing a lax attitude to other people's money. Frequently, they've set out on one course only to change direction, usually at a substantial cost in both money and people. Their approach to working from home (WFH) and remote working shows a herd instinct – something of which they are often guilty. If their customers did the same, these companies would be the first to complain and criticise. This is the most stark example of the confusion that rages around hybrid working, certainly in Britain. A recent study by King's College London found that Britain is the remote-working capital of Europe, with UK employees WFH 1.8 days a week on average – a number that is well above the global average of 1.3 days, and the highest in Europe. Globally, only Canadians average more days a week at home, WFH for 1.9 days. Dr Cevat Giray Aksoy, associate professor of economics at King's and lead economist at the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development, says: 'Remote work has moved from being an emergency response to becoming a defining feature of the UK labour market.' Dr Aksoy, who also advises the House of Lords on policy regarding the implications of remote working for productivity and labour markets, adds: 'This shift is forcing businesses, policymakers and city planners to reimagine everything from office space to transport to regional growth.' But is it? While his study may point to Britain being out in front or lagging, depending on how the figures are viewed, growing apocryphal evidence indicates something different. The City, for one, is signalling 'enough'. Stockbroker Panmure Liberum, reports the Financial Times, has joined Deutsche Bank in barring staff from working at home on consecutive Mondays and Fridays. UBS has told its folk they must be in on either Mondays or Fridays or both, as one of their three mandated days in the office. Broker Peel Hunt insists on four days a week in the office, while traders at Man Group are up to five. Santander views five days as the default option. Goldman Sachs regards WFH as an 'aberration'. JPMorgan chief Jamie Dimon, probably the most influential banker on the planet, argues that remote working allows 'bad habits to develop'. Where the City leads, like it or not, the rest of the country, business and organisation-wise, tends to follow. Brightmine, which studies HR practices, claims that 15.1 per cent of UK companies have reduced their WFH hours. Slowly but surely, the TWaTs – those who go in on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays – have begun to retreat. What began as a temporary solution to Covid and morphed into a trend, then a stampede, is coming to an end. Commuter numbers are edging towards their pre-pandemic levels. There will be those who resist, and there are bound to be lingering pockets of refuseniks, but by and large, Britain will fall into line. Maybe not reaching all five days, but the number WFH will be lower than it is currently, and will no longer be an outlier. It was predictable, and the banks for one should have seen what was likely to happen. After all, that is what they do, paying huge sums to smart graduates and deploying state-of-the-art technology to forecast the future. Seemingly no amount of qualifications from Stanford and MIT, no brilliant algorithms or AI, no 'thought leadership' gleaned in sessions at Davos or elsewhere, prepared them. This, too, in spite of the refusal of the mighty Goldman and JPMorgan's Dimon to play ball. If they had only stopped to think, it would have been obvious. Those super-smart hires are also intensely ambitious. How you get ahead, anywhere, is by standing out, making the boss sit up and notice. It's by showing that creative spark, which often results from being in the right spot at the right time. Convenient as they may be, the stultifying environments of Zoom or Teams, or even the sunny delights of Malaga and the Costa del Sol, are not that place. Ours – again, like it or not – is a globally connected world where commerce and trade are concerned. Nowhere more so than in banking. Why should workers in London, or the UK, operate to a different standard from everyone else? It does not make sense. At present, many employers are on the cusp; they are playing a balancing game. They are keen to not dissuade, and some Gen-Z and millennial employees expect to have the option to work from home. For now. But as they see those who spend more time in the office forging closer relationships with the chiefs, and winning promotions and higher salaries, it is surely a matter of when, not if, that changes.
