HKMA Sets Out Fintech Strategy for Coming Years
HKMA unveiled its new strategy—“Fintech 2025”—for driving fintech development in Hong Kong. The HKMA Chief Executive Eddie Yue outlined the new fintech strategy, which aims to encourage the financial sector to adopt technology comprehensively by 2025 as well as to promote the provision of fair and efficient financial services for the benefit of Hong Kong citizens and the economy. Additional details of the initiatives under the strategy will be announced by HKMA in due course.
The five focus areas put forward in the strategy are:
All banks going fintech. HKMA will continue to promote the all-round adoption of fintech by banks in Hong Kong and encourage them to fully digitalize their operations, from front-end to back-end. To take this forward, HKMA will roll out a Tech Baseline Assessment to take stock of banks’ current and planned adoption of fintech in the coming years and to identify fintech business areas or specific technology types that may be underdeveloped and would benefit from HKMA support. HKMA will issue further supervisory guidance to facilitate the uptake of novel technologies and continue to “walk the talk” by digitalizing supervision of banks through the use of advanced technologies.
Future-proofing Hong Kong for central bank digital currencies. HKMA will strengthen its research work to increase Hong Kong’s readiness in issuing central bank digital currencies at both wholesale and retail levels.
Creating the next-generation data infrastructure. HKMA will take the lead in enhancing the existing data infrastructure and building new one, including commercial data interchange, digital corporate identity, and distributed ledger technology (DLT)-based credit data sharing platform, to facilitate consent-based data sharing.
Expanding the fintech-savvy workforce. HKMA aims to collaborate with various strategic partners to groom all-round fintech talent, both students and practitioners, through various initiatives, including developing fintech-specific training programs and qualifications as well as promoting joint projects between the industry and the academia.
Nurturing the ecosystem with funding and policies. A new Fintech Cross-Agency Co-ordination Group will be established by HKMA and various industry key players to formulate supportive policies for the Hong Kong fintech ecosystem. In addition, HKMA will continue the preparatory work for the Hong Kong Growth Portfolio, which seeks to reinforce Hong Kong’s status as a financial, commercial and innovation center. It will also enhance its Fintech Supervisory Sandbox and is exploring with the Innovation and Technology Commission the possibility of providing funding support to qualified fintech projects.
Keywords: Asia Pacific, Hong Kong, Banking, Fintech, CBDC, Suptech, Regtech, Strategic Priorities, DLT, HKMA
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