Hong Kong Advances Fintech 2030 With AI and Payment Upgrades

The HKMA's latest package combines AI governance, tokenized settlement and quantum-security planning, with wider QR-payment access planned by year-end.

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As AI agents begin taking on financial tasks and digital assets move toward round-the-clock trading, banks need clear rules on who can act, how payments settle and how those systems are protected.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) announced measures addressing those needs at Hong Kong FinTech Week on November 2. The package advances its Fintech 2030 strategy, introduced in 2025, through work on AI-enabled finance, tokenized transactions, security and cross-border payments.

The initiatives bring together services that customers could use directly and infrastructure that banks need behind them. Some capabilities are already available within a controlled pilot, while other services and governance arrangements remain under development.

Rules for AI That Can Act

The regulator launched Project SAGE, short for Securing Agentic Finance with Governance and Enablement, to explore financial applications alongside the controls they require. Potential uses include everyday payments, corporate procurement and treasury management, and payments between machines for digital services.

AI agents can carry out tasks across connected systems, making their identity and delegated authority important when financial transactions are involved. SAGE will examine how to authenticate agents, establish compatible standards and address questions of liability, governance and consumer protection.

The HKMA has formed an expert group spanning financial institutions, technology companies, professional services and academia. It has also published a discussion paper seeking industry feedback on supervisory considerations for banks' use of agentic AI.

HKMA Chief Executive Eddie Yue said in the SAGE announcement:

“Agentic finance has the potential to transform how financial services are delivered and utilised.”

The work is intended to give institutions a basis for developing services while establishing who is authorized to act and who remains responsible for the outcome.

Settlement Beyond Banking Hours

For transactions involving digital assets, the HKMA is also extending the infrastructure through which money moves between banks. EnsembleTX, the pilot phase of Project Ensemble, now supports around-the-clock settlement of tokenized deposit transactions using tokenized central-bank money.

Participation has expanded to 12 banks and 20 industry pioneers. Launched in November 2025, the pilot initially used Hong Kong's real-time gross settlement system for interbank settlement. The new capability allows participating institutions to settle tokenized transactions beyond conventional operating hours.

That creates more flexibility for corporate cash management and transactions in tokenized funds, where the timing of an investment or transfer may fall outside the banking day. The capability remains part of a controlled pilot environment.

The HKMA has also completed secondary-market trial trades involving tokenized Exchange Fund Bills and plans to extend trials to regulated stablecoins. Separately, it launched tConnect Launchpad with Cyberport to bring financial institutions and technology firms together to develop and validate tokenization uses.

Security and Wider Payment Access

The security work addresses a longer-term risk: advances in quantum computing could compromise encryption used to protect financial information. The HKMA and the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology have launched a Post-Quantum Cryptography Toolkit to help banks assess their cryptographic systems, prioritize changes and plan transitions with suppliers.

The sector's initial Quantum Preparedness Index score was 2.3 out of 10. The stated goal is to reach full readiness, a score of 10, by 2030. The toolkit provides planning support as banks work toward that target.

For consumers, the nearer-term change is a planned connection between Hong Kong's Faster Payment System and UnionPay International. Scheduled for completion by the end of 2026, it will progressively enable QR payments across more than 100 million merchants in Hong Kong, mainland China and over 40 overseas markets, according to the HKMA's announcement.

Together, the measures could make financial services easier to automate and use across markets while strengthening the controls behind them. Their commercial value will depend on banks and payment providers turning the new frameworks and pilot capabilities into dependable services for businesses and consumers.