Hong Kong made a forward-looking move on digital assets last month by passing a landmark law to regulate the market for stablecoins. Such a regime, which is well ahead of many jurisdictions in Asia and North America, will help bolster public confidence in this popular and fast-growing financial sector. It showcases the city’s crucial role…
Standard Chartered’s first-quarter profit beat expectations, as the bank placed a greater focus on wealth management in the face of lower interest rates and rising bad debt provisions. Net profit rose 13 per cent in the first three months of 2025 to US$1.59 billion, or 62.7 US cents per share, from US$1.4 billion last year,…
Hong Kong banks should use a government platform to verify new customers, experts have said, after eight people were arrested for allegedly using deepfake software to alter lost identity cards to set up new accounts. Experts told the Post that the inability of banks to verify personal data during the application process and their reliance…
Three people have been arrested for allegedly attempting to open a bank account in Hong Kong and depositing nearly 2,000 counterfeit bonds, each with a face value of HK$500 million (US$64 million). The suspects, two men and a woman aged between 65 and 75, were arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of using false instruments. They…
Euroclear has joined Project Ensemble, the wholesale central bank digital currency (wCBDC) initiative from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA). The project explores using wCBDC for the settlement of tokenization transactions and for interbank settlement of tokenized deposits. Euroclear becomes a member of the Architecture Community and is the sole financial market infrastructure (FMI) community…
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) maintained its base rate at 4.75 per cent on Thursday. Hours earlier, the Fed left its target rate in the 4.25 to 4.5 per cent range, following the second Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting of the year. The HKMA last cut the city’s base rate to 4.75 per…
Hong Kong’s financial sector is well positioned to benefit from the rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI), China’s opening up and wealth creation in the region, the chairman of the Financial Services Development Council (FSDC) said on Monday. Hong Kong’s markets will play a big role in helping companies raise funds, while the liberalisation of…
The three-year senior unsecured fixed-rate sustainable-development bonds pay an annual coupon of 3.847 per cent, and will settle locally in Hong Kong’s Central Moneymarkets Unit (CMU), which tracks and manages Hong Kong-dollar debt securities and other financial products. The bonds attracted investors domestically and across Asia-Pacific, with the final order book reaching HK$9 billion with…
Hong Kong’s largest banks are likely to offer new mortgages to ease the burden on homebuyers amid elevated interest rates, but experts doubt that the trend would overcome the factors weighing down the struggling property market. HSBC, one of the city’s three currency-issuing lenders, unveiled on Wednesday new mortgage plans offering a fixed rate of…
As Hong Kong’s workers return to their desks on Monday after a long holiday break, many large banks and financial firms are offering them millions of dollars in lai see, hampers, Asia Miles, lucky draws and other gifts to ring in the Year of the Snake. Companies have traditionally given staffers lai see packets on…