Policy Address

Steady Development of Fintech

103. The HKMA will continue to take forward Project Ensemble⁷, including encouraging commercial banks to introduce tokenised deposits, and promoting live transactions of tokenised assets, such as the settlement of tokenised money market funds with tokenised deposits. It will also assist the Government in regularising the issuance of tokenised bonds, and encourage banks to strengthen risk management through the supervisory sandbox.

104. We are implementing a regime for stablecoin issuers and formulating legislative proposals regarding licensing regimes for digital asset dealing and custodian service providers. The SFC is studying the possibility of offering a wider range of digital asset products and services to professional investors with the prerequisite of sufficient investor protection in place. Meanwhile, we will step up international tax co-operation to tackle cross-border tax evasion. The SFC will also introduce automated reporting and data surveillance tools to build a line of defence against risks associated with digital assets in Hong Kong.

Development of Green and Sustainable Finance

105. In 2022, the HKEX launched Core Climate, an international carbon trading platform and the only voluntary carbon credit trading platform in the world offering settlement in Hong Kong dollars and RMB. In the future, we will deepen pilot co-operation with the GBA carbon market, testing the means of cross-border trade settlement, and jointly building a regional carbon market ecosystem. Working with relevant Mainland regulatory departments and authorities, the Government will also study issues surrounding the country's participation in the international carbon market, including the formulation of voluntary carbon credit standards and methods, as well as the registration, trading and settlement of carbon emission reduction.