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
Next Article
HMT Issues Draft Instrument to Amend CRR in UKRelated Articles
ECB Amends Guideline on Temporary Collateral Easing Measures
ECB published Guideline 2021/975, which amends Guideline ECB/2014/31, on the additional temporary measures relating to Eurosystem refinancing operations and eligibility of collateral.
EIOPA Releases Report on Artificial Intelligence Governance Principles
EIOPA published a report, from the Consultative Expert Group on Digital Ethics, that sets out artificial intelligence governance principles for an ethical and trustworthy artificial intelligence in the insurance sector in EU.
HKMA to Increase Focus on Suptech and Regtech Cloud Adoption
HKMA published the seventh and final issue of the Regtech Watch series, which outlines the three-year roadmap of HKMA to integrate supervisory technology, or suptech, into its processes.
EC Consults on Improving Transparency in Secondary Markets for NPLs
EC launched a targeted consultation to improve transparency and efficiency in the secondary markets for nonperforming loans (NPLs).
BIS and Nordic Central Banks Launch Innovation Hub in Stockholm
BIS, Danmarks Nationalbank, Central Bank of Iceland, Norges Bank, and Sveriges Riksbank launched an Innovation Hub in Stockholm, making this the fifth BIS Innovation Hub Center to be opened in the past two years.
FDIC Tech Sprint Aims to Explore Technologies to Reach Unbanked
FDITECH, the technology lab of FDIC, announced a tech sprint that is designed to explore new technologies and techniques that would help expand the capabilities of community banks to meet the needs of unbanked individuals and households.
EC Releases Sustainable Finance Taxonomy Compass
EC released the EU Taxonomy Compass, which visually represents the contents of the EU Taxonomy starting with the EU Taxonomy Climate Delegated Act.
FDIC Proposes Amendments to Real Estate Lending Standards
FDIC is seeking comments on a rule to amend the interagency guidelines for real estate lending policies—also known as the Real Estate Lending Standards.
EIOPA to Consider Liquidity Risk in Stress Test for 2021
EIOPA published its annual report, which sets out the work done in 2020 and indicates the planned work areas for the coming months.
ESRB Paper Discusses Measurement of Impact of Bank Failure via Lending
The ESRB paper that presents an analytical framework that assesses and quantifies the potential impact of a bank failure on the real economy through the lending function.
