The British multinational bank HSBC, which controls the greatest amount of assets in Europe, has increased its focus on digital currencies in recent years. The financial institution is seeking to hire a senior executive who will focus on asset tokenization.
On January 30, HSBC announced the opening of a post for a GPBW product director of tokenization, and the deadline for applications was set for February 13. According to the description of the role, the "tokenization director" would be responsible for "creating and executing" a worldwide tokenization offer as well as representing the bank in front of regulators and the digital assets ecosystem.
The applicant has to be familiar with digital assets, particularly asset tokenization and custody, and have "deep insights" into the sector as a whole as well as the important wealth markets in various geographical locations.
This signifies the acceleration of HSBC's interest in digital currencies, which had previously been represented in a number of cooperation between the two companies. The bank began offering its rich customers in Singapore and Hong Kong a metaverse investment product in April 2022. The target audience for this investment was the metaverse. Earlier, the company became a member of the Global Markets Advisory Committee of the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
However, the most significant area of interest for HSBC is the expansion of digital currencies used by central banks throughout the world (CBDCs). Noel Quinn, the CEO of HSBC Group, provided an overview of the company's commitment to supporting digital currencies issued by central banks in September 2021. However, he emphasised concern over the dangers connected with cryptocurrencies and stablecoins.
The British bank was a participant in the proof-of-concept CBDC project that was run by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York for a period of twelve weeks. It was present during the unveiling of the Universal Digital Payment Network, which is a platform for distributed ledger technology (DLT) that would serve a role comparable to that of the SWIFT network for banks, but for stablecoins and CBDCs instead. Additionally, HSBC is one of the 14 commercial and central banks who are working together with SWIFT to test transactions including CBDCs and tokenized assets on preexisting financial infrastructure.
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