Hong Kong’s banking regulator has unveiled four flagship projects, including a quantum computing readiness index, to help the city’s lenders stay competitive and secure in the artificial intelligence era. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) said the initiatives formed part of its new Fintech Promotion Blueprint, aimed at guiding responsible innovation and preparing the city’s…
Hong Kong has finalized its Basel crypto rules for banks, codifying standards in legislation while issuing non-statutory guidance that takes a more favorable approach to certain stablecoins and permissionless blockchains than the Basel Committee’s position. The territory is one of the few major jurisdictions implementing the Basel Committee for Banking Supervision (BCBS) crypto rules in…
The Hong Kong government announced plans for regular digital bond issuances as part of its digital assets Policy 2.0 statement in June. To date it has issued a tokenized green bond in 2023 and a far larger natively digital green bond issuance in 2024 of more than $750 million. According to Bloomberg, it has now…
Hong Kong opened applications for stablecoin issuers at the start of August, with 77 firms applying during the month. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has repeatedly stated it only plans to license a handful of companies in the first instance. With its initial rules requiring the identity of every stablecoin user, this may favor…
Hong Kong’s Financial Secretary Paul Chan outlined plans for a second digital asset innovation push in a blog post over the weekend. After the first policy statement in 2022 formalized its approach to cryptocurrencies, it is planning to announce its future strategy soon. It sounds like the focus could be on digital securities and tokenized…
Today Hong Kong’s Legislative Council passed the Stablecoin Bill for fiat-referenced stablecoins. The legislation is expected to come into force later this year and is seen as a key pillar in Hong Kong’s desire to maintain and enhance its position as an international financial center. Last year the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) launched a…