Hong Kong unveils fintech strategy to future-proof the city in AI and tokenisation

Hong Kong on Monday launched a five-year fintech strategy, pledging to advance artificial intelligence and tokenisation initiatives responsibly to strengthen the city's position as a leading fintech hub.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), which unveiled the plan at the flagship Fintech Week conference, said it expected to launch more than 40 initiatives to embed AI in finance, build a financial tokenisation ecosystem, create data and payment infrastructure, and enhance sector-wide resilience.

"Ten years ago, the term fintech was far removed from the general public, but now fintech is a part of everyday life," said Eddie Yue Wai-man, chief executive of the HKMA, in a media briefing after unveiling the Fintech 2030 strategy.

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He said Fintech 2030 was the third stage of Hong Kong's fintech strategy for the financial sector, noting that the first phase, launched in 2017, introduced digital banks, and the second phase in 2021 stressed fintech's practicality.

The HKMA said the goal of Fintech 2030 is to serve as a blueprint to prepare Hong Kong for the future. Photo: Yik Yeung-man alt=The HKMA said the goal of Fintech 2030 is to serve as a blueprint to prepare Hong Kong for the future. Photo: Yik Yeung-man>

"The emphasis of fintech 2.0 was on the practical use of fintech for payments and transactions, while fintech 3.0 is more about resilience and charting the future of fintech," Yue said. "Over the next five years, we will have 40 measures in four areas to make sure Hong Kong has more in-depth development, more resilience, and most importantly, we must be ready for the future."

The first project under Fintech 2030, likely to be rolled out by the end of this year, could be for the settlement of tokenised money market funds.

The plan is to have a comprehensive settlement system for the existing tokenised money market funds in the market.

"Banks can use tokenised deposits to settle these funds, [and] regarding the settlement among banks, we would also like them to use the central bank digital currency for settlements," Yue said.

Other uses for tokenisation could follow in green finance, carbon emissions trading, corporate treasury management and cross-border trade finance, he added.

Yue said the HKMA was in talks with the central banks of Brazil and Thailand to use blockchain and tokenisation to make cross-border trade transactions "quicker and cheaper", while making it easier for small and medium-sized enterprises to obtain trade finance to expand their business.

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Overall, the goal of Fintech 2030 was to serve as a blueprint to prepare Hong Kong for the future, enhance the efficiency and safety of its financial sector, and thereby strengthen its position as an international financial centre, Yue said.

This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP's Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2025 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.

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