SEOUL, October 20 (AJP) — The Bank of Korea (BOK) and the Bank of England (BoE) discussed closer cooperation on tokenized finance after comparing domestic and cross-border digital-money projects, the BOK said Tuesday.
Sarah Breeden, the BoE's deputy governor for financial stability, visited the BOK on Monday and exchanged views with officials on payment innovation and other issues.
Officials from the two central banks reviewed progress on South Korea's Project Hangang, Project Agorá — in which both institutions participate — and broader asset-tokenization initiatives while exploring areas for further cooperation.
Tokenization refers to representing money or financial assets such as deposits, bonds and securities as digital tokens, allowing transactions and settlement to be carried out on programmable digital infrastructure.
Project Hangang is the BOK's domestic experiment combining tokenized commercial bank deposits with a wholesale central bank digital currency on a unified ledger.
The project is designed to test how programmable payments can operate while retaining central bank money as the foundation for settlement between financial institutions.
Project Agorá, meanwhile, focuses on wholesale cross-border payments. Led by the Bank for International Settlements and the Institute of International Finance, it brings together the BOK, the BoE and other central banks alongside more than 40 private financial institutions.
A prototype unveiled in May showed that tokenized commercial bank deposits and central bank reserves could be combined to settle transactions across currencies and jurisdictions on an atomic, or all-or-nothing, basis.
The talks come as the BoE is also examining how conventional and tokenized bank deposits, regulated stablecoins and potentially a digital pound could coexist within the financial system, while maintaining a central role for central bank money in settlement.
The BOK's statement did not announce a new joint project or provide a timetable for further cooperation.
The BOK said it plans to continue sharing experience from Project Hangang and other tokenization projects with the international community and participate actively in global discussions on digital finance.
Copyright ⓒ Aju Press All rights reserved.