HONG KONG,Oct. 31,2024 -- The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) today introduced WeBank Technology Services,JPMorgan Chase Bank,National Association and R3 as new members of the Project Ensemble Architecture Community (the Community).

WeBank Technology Services,leveraging its expertise in blockchain technology and industry practices,looks to play a pivotal role in supporting the innovation and organic growth of Hong Kong's tokenisation market.

Launched by HKMA in March this year,Project Ensemble aims to develop innovative financial market infrastructure (FMI) to facilitate interbank settlement of tokenised money through wholesale central bank digital currency (wCBDC). In August,the HKMA introduced Ensemble Sandboxi,seeking to "examine technical interoperability among tokenised assets,tokenised deposits and wCBDC,while enabling industry participants to conduct end-to-end testing of tokenised asset transactions in practical business scenarios."

The initial members of Project Ensemble Architecture Community include the HKMA,the Securities and Futures Commission,the BIS Innovation Hub Hong Kong Centre,the CBDC Expert Group,and seven members from the private sector.

Unveiled in June in Hong Kong,WeBank Technology Services sets out to expand WeBank's leading fintech innovation to global markets. In the field of blockchain technology,WeBank has been leading the development of the open-source financial-grade blockchain infrastructure FISCO BCOS since 2017. The FISCO BCOS community has brought together over 100,000 individual developers and more than 5,000 organizations,while launching more than 400 benchmark applications. It is now one of the most active open-source blockchain communities in China.

About WeBank Technology Services

WeBank Technology Services was launched in Hong Kong in June 2024. WeBank Technology Services sets out to leverage WeBank's cutting-edge fintech capabilities and digital finance best practice to deliver a variety of superior digital finance and digital infrastructure solutions to digital banks,financial institutions,government agencies,and industry partners worldwide.

About WeBank

Launched in 2014,WeBank Co.,Ltd. ("WeBank") is the first digital bank in China. WeBank provides more convenient financial services to micro-,small- and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) and the general public,and continuously improves the quality of services in response to customers' specific needs. WeBank ranked No. 1 in The Asian Banker's Global Top 100 Digital Banks in 2022 and 2023. By June 2024,WeBank has served over 400 million retail customers and 5 million MSMEs.

i https://www.hkma.gov.hk/eng/news-and-media/press-releases/2024/08/20240828-3/