Hong Kong Monetary Authority: mBridge has entered the minimum viable product development stage

Bénédicte Nolens, head of the Hong Kong Center under the Innovation Hub of the Bank for International Settlements, said at Fintech Week that the multilateral central bank digital currency bridge project mBridge has entered the minimum viable product development stage. In the next few months, different forms of market linkages will be studied, and some improvements will also be studied. Public-private collaboration for project liquidity and efficiency, as well as further enhancing anti-money laundering solutions, and the application of new technologies such as artificial intelligence. The HKMA expects that the mBridge minimum viable product will be launched next year and will be ready for the system to be officially put into operation. Pau Hak-yun, Assistant Chief Executive (Financial Infrastructure) of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, said that considering the scale and complexity of mBridge, the relevant projects must be supported by a very strong and efficient legal framework to clearly define the rights and responsibilities of all participants. He mentioned that mBridge is supported by three levels of comprehensive legal documents, including the platform level, the jurisdiction level, and the bank level. Among them, legal documents at the jurisdictional level are rules formulated by relevant places according to their respective needs, such as the issuance and redemption terms of central bank digital currency (CBDC). He said that the mBridge legal framework emphasizes the principle of do no harm while respecting the monetary sovereignty of all participating jurisdictions. (RTHK website)