HSBC extends tokenized deposit service to US | PaymentsSource

Key insights: HSBC is expanding its tokenized deposit service to the U.S., which was already available in Hong Kong, Singapore, Luxembourg and the UK.
What’s at stake: Banks have been slow to roll out on-chain products as they wait to see which use cases will be the most in demand.
Forward look: The move is the first cog in a wider plan to make tokenized deposits more interoperable across borders, and eventually, among clients.

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HSBC is making tokenized deposits available in the U.S.

The $3.2 trillion-asset U.K.-based bank’s tokenized deposit product allows corporations to move money between their domestic and international accounts, instantly and on-chain. The product is also available in Hong Kong, Singapore, Luxembourg and the U.K., and supports multiple currencies, including euros, U.S. dollars, pounds sterling, Singapore dollar, Hong Kong dollar, and onshore and offshore Chinese Yuan.

“[Our customers’] businesses operate 365, 24/7. [Payments] need to operate in that same way as well as they become more global,” Tom Halpin, HSBC’s North America lead of Global Payments Solutions, told American Banker. “We have a unique proposition that we can do because of our ecosystem effect.” HSBC operates in more than 50 countries.

The expansion of the bank’s tokenized deposit service comes as many banks play the waiting game as they decide where to make investments in on-chain products such as stablecoins or tokenized deposits. But some early movers have shown a penchant for tokenized deposits, according to American Banker research.

HSBC is one of the most active banks in digital-asset product development among banks, according to an American Banker analysis of public statements made by the top 50 publicly traded banks. Citi and JPMorganChase are among the large banks that have deployed tokenized deposits.

Tokenized deposits provide multiple benefits to multinational companies, Inderpreet Batra, a senior partner and managing director at BCG, told American Banker.

“I can’t go outside the bank, but within the bank, I can get a bunch of efficiencies. I can do automation,” Batra said. “The other good thing about tokenized deposits is they are programmable, which means that I can create conditions that say, ‘If my balance in a certain country drops below x, then move money, or this certain day I have this much payroll obligation, so move money exactly when I need to make payroll.”

While HSBC’s tokenized deposit service only allows its clients to move money between their own accounts, Halpin said that the bank is next looking at making the service available for clients to move tokenized deposits to another HSBC client.

“Our first ring is always customer to customer,” Halpin said. “The next ring is our customer to a key counterpart on our network.”

Beyond that, HSBC wants to connect its network to other private networks, such as faster payments networks in different countries.

“We also operate in 65 real-time payment systems around the world, so if we don’t have an account with us on our books, in the future, we’re going to be more so looking at, how do we take advantage of our presence globally to move to money where it’s allowed over those private networks at the same pace,” Halpin said.