Speech by FS at Hong Kong FinTech Week x StartmeupHK Festival 2025 (English just) (with photos/video)
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Following is the speech by the Financial Secretary, Mr Paul Chan, at Hong Kong FinTech Week x StartmeupHK Festival 2025 today (November 3):
Identified visitors, women and gentlemen,
I’m pleased to join you today, and I understand we’re all anticipating the fireside chat with the group CEOs of 2 of Hong Kong’s prominent banks– a discussion that guarantees to be informative and motivating.
Before we start, permit me to share some points about the Government’s policy vision in driving forward fintech advancement in Hong Kong.
In the monetary sector, we strongly think that digitalisation is a transformative force that needs to be welcomed. It boosts effectiveness, minimizes expenses, allows more customised services, and plays a crucial function in promoting monetary addition.
Technologies like AI and blockchain hold tremendous capacity– from automating procedures and enhancing credit evaluations, to enhancing compliance and allowing near-instant, inexpensive payments. With these advantages come essential difficulties: algorithmic predisposition, information personal privacy, financier security, and dangers to monetary stability. They need to all be thoroughly resolved.
To completely harness the power of digitalisation while handling its dangers, robust governance structures are vital. Simply as essential is close cooperation in between the general public and economic sectors to drive development forward.
Permit me to share 3 crucial observations from our journey in constructing a lively fintech environment.
Financial addition as an unbiased
The supreme objective of monetary development is to serve the genuine economy and enhance lives. Among the best pledges of fintech is promoting monetary addition. And our company believe that ingenious options and more powerful information connection through public-private collaborations are crucial to opening this pledge
A terrific example is the Commercial Data Interchange (CDI) released by the HKMA (Hong Kong Monetary Authority) in 2022. It makes it possible for little and medium business (SMEs) to share organization information with rely on a permission basis, to help with faster and fairer credit evaluations. Today, the CDI links 17 information service providers, consisting of federal government firms, and has actually currently supported over 71 000 loan applications totaling up to more than HK$ 58 billion. And we’re not stopping there. Work is underway to broaden its scope even more to consist of more information sets and utilize cases, for instance, bringing trade and logistics information into funding choices.
Financial addition likewise implies benefit. The Faster Payment System (FPS) is a case in point. It has actually not just changed regional interbank transfers however likewise gone cross-boundary. The FPS is now related to the Mainland’s Internet Banking Payment System along with Thailand’s PromptPay, making it possible for real-time, cross-border payments for users.
We’re likewise empowering start-ups as motorists of inclusive development. With around 1 200 fintech business in Hong Kong, we support their development so they can scale their services and succeed.
Through the Hong Kong Investment Corporation, we’ve invested in micro-lending platforms broadening into Southeast Asia, assisting provide inclusive monetary tools where the need is speeding up.
Regulators as enablers of development
The 2nd observation is that regulators can and need to be enablers of development. In Hong Kong, our monetary regulators have a double required– sensible policy and market advancement assistance.
Over the years, we’ve carried out a variety of regulative sandboxes that permit innovators to check brand-new items in a regulated environment, get prompt regulative feedback, and improve their services before going to market. These sandboxes cultivate cooperation in between regulators and innovators, typically resulting in the co-creation of completely brand-new services.
One location where this is particularly noticeable is tokenisation, which is quickly getting traction, making it possible for much faster, more protected and more effective deals.
That’s why Project Ensemble was introduced in 2015– to check out tokenised properties, platform interoperability, and typical market requirements. It’s a collective effort including both regional and global gamers, and it shows our belief that experimentation should progress together with innovation. I’m grateful to keep in mind that Ensemble Pilot will be presented, making it possible for genuine worth deals in tokenised deposits and digital possessions. And tokenisation is making it possible for a wealth of brand-new financial investment items such as tokenised cash market funds.
The Government is likewise leading by example. Our issuance of tokenised green bonds has not just set a market criteria, however likewise motivated wider adoption of sustainable digital financing.
Accountable and sustainable development
Third, obligation and sustainability are crucial in monetary development– specifically in locations like digital properties and AI. While we should motivate development, we need to likewise guarantee its real-world applicability, financier defense, and monetary stability effect.
When it concerns controling digital possessions– whether digital property trading platforms or stablecoins– we follow the concept of “same activity, same risk, same regulation”In specific, our regulative method to stablecoins is clear: they are not meant for financial investment, however rather as a tool to help with cross-border deals and real-world financial activity. That’s why, under our licensing program, approvals will be given just to candidates that show real usage cases backed by sustainable and robust service design.
We take a comparable method with AI. As part of the Government’s wider “AI+” technique, we’re embedding AI throughout sectors, drawing in international skill and business, and motivating cross-sector cooperation.
We likewise identify the threats. Last October, we released a policy declaration on the accountable usage of AI in monetary services. It embraces a “dual-track” technique: promoting adoption while attending to threats like cybersecurity, information personal privacy, and IP security.
Concluding remarks
Ladies and gentlemen, as we mark the 10th anniversary of Hong Kong FinTech Week and the StartmeupHK Festival, we’re commemorating a years of effect, aspiration and strong concepts.
These 2 signature occasions have actually united visionary business owners, international financiers, policymakers, and market leaders from worldwide– all joined by a shared belief: that innovation can make financing more inclusive, more effective and more human.
By having you all, and with our collective efforts, I’m sure that Hong Kong will grow more powerful as a dynamic, future-ready center for fintech quality.
Thank you.