5 October 2021 – The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) issued a 50-page white paper called “e-HKD: A technical perspective” with the idea of exploring potential architecture and design options for the digital currency. It has listed seven major areas and will collect comments by the end of this year.

The HKMA emphasised that it had not decided to launch the e-HKD and simply wanted to collect views before it took a decision next year. The HKMA began researching central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) under Project LionRock in 2017 and has since then actively collaborated with other central banks in broadening its knowledge of wholesale CBDC. In June 2021, the HKMA commenced Project e-HKD, which is a retail or general-purpose CBDC project that aims to study the feasibility of e-HKD. It comprises two components: a technology experimentation study and a comprehensive study of other issues, including legal and policy considerations.

Re-disseminated from Hong Kong Monetary Authority, with additional reporting from South China Morning Post