Bank of Korea and Bank of England strengthen cooperation on tokenization projects

[Financial News]  The Bank of Korea (BOK) will strengthen cooperation with the Bank of England (BoE), the UK's central bank, on projects related to tokenization, a key component of next-generation payment and settlement infrastructure.
On the 20th, the BOK said it had met with Sarah Breeden, the BoE's deputy governor for financial stability, who visited its headquarters in Jung-gu, Seoul, and exchanged in-depth views on key issues concerning payment and settlement innovation and financial stability between the two countries' central banks.
That day, the two sides shared updates on global efforts to advance digital currencies and tokenization, including Project Han-gang, led by the BOK, and Project Agora, in which both countries are participating, and explored ways to improve cross-border payment and settlement efficiency and link technologies.
The BOK will launch in earnest Project Han-gang Phase 2, a live-transaction test based on deposit tokens, in the fourth quarter of this year.
A BOK official stressed, “We plan to actively share with the international community our experience with tokenization projects such as Project Han-gang and to take an active part in related international discussions.”
Tokenization is the recording of financial assets or liabilities on a programmable distributed-ledger infrastructure. It is an innovative means of payment that enables complex payment, settlement and reconciliation functions, previously carried out in stages by multiple intermediaries, to be handled efficiently on a single integrated ledger.
[email protected] Jung Sang-gyun Reporter