Protocols & Policy · Policy
Hong Kong pilot lets banks settle with central bank money 24/7
The HKMA says its Ensemble TX pilot now settles tokenized deposit trades between banks at any hour, with 12 banks and 20 other firms signed on.
Hong Kong pilot lets banks settle with central bank money 24/7
Banks in Hong Kong's central bank pilot can now settle tokenized deposit trades with each other at any hour, which means a company moving cash or buying a tokenized fund at night or on a weekend no longer has to wait for the interbank system to open [1].
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority said on Monday, Nov. 2, Hong Kong time, that Ensemble TX, "the pilot phase of Project Ensemble, has entered a new chapter to support the interbank settlement of tokenised deposit transactions in tokenised Central Bank Money (CeBM) on a 24/7 basis" [1]. A tokenized deposit is an ordinary bank deposit recorded as a digital token; central bank money is the money banks hold at the HKMA itself and use to pay one another.
The mechanism
When a customer of one bank pays a customer of another, the two banks still have to square up between themselves. That final step is settlement, and it is where the risk of one bank failing to pay the other gets removed.
Ensemble TX started in November 2025 on Hong Kong's existing interbank pipe, the HKD Real Time Gross Settlement system, the HKMA said [1]. RTGS settles each payment one by one in central bank money, but it keeps operating hours. The release describes the change as letting participants "leverage tokenised CeBM for the timely settlement of tokenised transactions beyond conventional operating hours" [1]. In plain terms, the banks now settle with a tokenized version of central bank money that does not close at night.
It is still a pilot. The HKMA describes the original setup as "a controlled pilot environment," handling "real-value transactions" in tokenized deposits and digital assets, used for "corporate treasury management and tokenised money market fund transactions" [1].
The evidence
The roster grew. The HKMA said participating banks and "industry pioneers" in Ensemble TX "increased to 12 and 20 respectively" [1]. The annexes show who joined when [2].
| Group | Joined 2025 | Joined 2026 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tokenized deposit banks (Annex A) | 7 | 5 | 12 |
| Other industry pioneers (Annex B) | 13 | 7 | 20 |
Source: HKMA press release 20261102-5 and Annexes A and B, Nov. 2, 2026 [1][2].
The five banks new this year are Bank of Communications (Hong Kong), China CITIC Bank International, ICBC (Asia), Industrial Bank's Hong Kong branch and Nanyang Commercial Bank [2]. The seven new non-bank names include CMU OmniClear, HashKey Group and JINGDONG Technology. BlackRock, Franklin Templeton and Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing were already on the 2025 list [2].
The HKMA defines a tokenized deposit bank as one that provides tokenized deposits to customers in Hong Kong and settles interbank tokenized deposit transactions through Ensemble TX "in a real-value setting" [2].
Eddie Yue, the HKMA's chief executive, framed the move as a turn toward business. "In just two years, Project Ensemble has transitioned from experimentation and piloting to a new phase focused on promoting the commercialisation of tokenisation applications in Hong Kong," he said [1].
Julia Leung, chief executive officer of the Securities and Futures Commission, the securities regulator, named the uses. "Tokenised deposits can now power around-the-clock transactions, including corporate treasury management and secondary trading of tokenised funds on licensed platforms, galvanising market liquidity and supporting investors' risk management," she said [1].
The objection
A switch that is on is not the same as money moving through it. The release gives a capability and a participant count. It gives no transaction volumes or values [1]. And the HKMA's own word for the setting is still "pilot," which a regulator can widen or narrow on its own schedule.
There is also a fair question about who benefits. The release names 12 banks, but it does not say every customer of those banks can use tokenized deposits, only that the banks provide them in a real-value setting [2].
The tell (Le Coin's view)
Le Coin's view: The detail to watch is not the 24/7 label but the settlement asset. Hong Kong chose to make central bank money itself available around the clock for tokenized bank money, rather than let banks lean on a private token to settle with each other. That keeps the final leg of a payment on the HKMA's books at all hours. Yue's line about "commercialisation" and Leung's mention of "licensed platforms" point the same way: the regulators want tokenized trading to grow inside banks and licensed venues. The next release worth reading is the first one that puts a number on what settles outside office hours.
Stop
Hong Kong's central bank pilot now settles tokenized deposit trades between 12 banks at any hour, in central bank money, with 20 other firms taking part. The HKMA published no volumes. It is still a pilot.
Sources
- Hong Kong Monetary Authority, press release 20261102-5, "HKMA advances Project Ensemble pilot phase to 24/7 settlement in tokenised Central Bank Money," Nov. 2, 2026. https://www.hkma.gov.hk/eng/news-and-media/press-releases/2026/11/20261102-5/
- Hong Kong Monetary Authority, Annexes A and B to press release 20261102-5. https://www.hkma.gov.hk/media/eng/doc/key-information/press-release/2026/20261102e5a1.pdf
Holding the Corner.
Not financial advice.