Global Shipping Business Network (GSBN) reports that it has joined the Hong Kong Monetary Authority’s (HKMA) Project Ensemble, a move that will see the consortium test its electronic Bill of Lading (eBL) tokenisation use case with Ant Digital Technologies.
Under Project Ensemble, eBLs will be issued over GSBN’s blockchain infrastructure, which will then be tokenised by Ant Digital Technologies and wrapped on its own blockchain to enable trade finance payments to flow through via tokenised deposit.
Those tokenised deposits will utilise a new wholesale Central Bank Digital Currency (wCBDC) established by the HKMA to provide an infrastructure that enables the settlement of tokenised money and real-world assets between the Hongkong Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) and Hang Seng Bank.
GSBN hopes that the tokenisation of the eBL will provide a path for the securitisation of global physical shipping flows, potentially unlocking alternative sources of finance for the shipping and logistics market.
“Joining Project Ensemble is another milestone in our mission to modernise trade for a more resilient global economy by accelerating the tokenisation of eBL,” said Bertrand Chen, CEO of GSBN.
“Working with ecosystem partners like Ant Digital Technologies and banks in Hong Kong creates new trade finance opportunities for businesses and trade intermediaries all over the world. This latest development highlights the rapid growth of the GSBN network and the potential for tokenisation to pave the way to a digitally driven global trade ecosystem.”
GSBN’s ecosystem of partners includes COSCO Shipping Lines, OOCL, Hapag-Lloyd and other maritime organisations. To date, more than 300,000 eBLs have been issued and transferred on the consortium’s platform.
