Standard Chartered and Ant International today announced the successful completion of HKD-denominated intra-group transactions between Ant International entities.

Ant International will apply the Treasury management principles to move funds between entities using its Whale platform, a next-generation treasury management solution that utilises blockchain technology, advanced encryption and artificial intelligence to improve the efficiency and transparency of fund movements.

This is part of the Bank’s active participation in a variety of Ant International’s innovative platforms and solutions including the Whale platform. Standard Chartered is committed to building a more transparent, efficient, and secure infrastructure for global payments by integrating innovation directly into the Bank’s payment systems.

Both Standard Chartered and Ant International are participants of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority’s Ensemble Sandbox. Since May this year, Standard Chartered Hong Kong has been participating in Project Ensemble as a member of its Architecture Community, to jointly develop industry standards and assist in the design and implementation of the Ensemble Sandbox, which tests use cases for tokenisation. Ant International is also a participant in the Ensemble Sandbox, developing two use cases using its Whale platform.

Project Ensemble is a wholesale central bank digital currency (“wCBDC”) project that seeks to explore innovative financial market infrastructure for seamless interbank settlement of tokenised money through wCBDC.

Anthony Lin, Head of Hong Kong and Greater China & North Asia, and Global Head of Market Management, Transaction Banking, Standard Chartered, said:

“Inefficient working capital costs corporate clients significant revenue drag and we, at Standard Chartered, are committed to adopting the latest technology and collaborating with our regulatory stakeholders to enable the next phase of financial market infrastructure powered by blockchain and tokenisation. As a member in the Architecture Community of the HKMA’s Project Ensemble, Standard Chartered is excited to work closely with clients, including Ant International, to co-create solutions that will provide seamless, 24/7, real time treasury solutions.”

“We are proud of the milestone we have achieved through this collaboration with Standard Chartered, and the impact it will have on how businesses manage their global liquidity in the future. Through combining Standard Chartered’s core banking capabilities with Ant International’s innovative technologies, such as the Whale platform, we are able to leverage tokenisation to facilitate cross-border transactions in a more efficient, secure and seamless manner,” said Kelvin Li, Head of Platform Tech at Ant International.

Standard Chartered is committed to shaping the future of finance by adopting innovation, investing in disruptive financial technology and exploring alternative business models. In addition to Project Ensemble, Standard Chartered Hong Kong also actively participates in a variety of pioneering projects, such as the HKMA Stable Coin Issuer Sandbox, the e-HKD Pilot Programme, Project mBridge, Project Dynamo and Project Genesis.