Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has announced that they will collaborate with Abu Dhabi’s regulators to build a cross-border trade finance system using distributed ledger technology (DLT).

The HKMA and the Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) of the Abu Dhabi Global Market signed a cooperation agreement on June 26 to build up the cooperation between two countries and  encourage financial services in both markets.

The representative from HKMA shared that they will establish a close partnership with FSRA in order to embrace fintech innovation/solutions, especially to develop a cross-border trade finance network using DTL.

In late 2017, HKMA also confirmed their partnership with The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to joint launch a cross-border trade platform on blockchain technology.

As reported, over 20 global banks and financial organizations participated in the test in hope of accelerating the proof-of-concept to commercial production, which is believed to be ready by 2019.

According to a sharing on CoinDesk, the HKMA implied that the HKTFP might provide a basis infrastructure for Abu Dhabi:

“The Financial Services Regulatory Authority of the Abu Dhabi Global Market has indicated interest in the Hong Kong Trade Finance Platform and would like to explore any cross-border cooperative opportunity in this area. The HKMA will continue to have the dialogue with them, including any possible cross-border trade finance infrastructure development between the two markets.”