Hong Kong Launches “Fintech 2030” Strategy to Embed AI and Tokenisation in Financial Sector
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) on Monday unveiled a five-year strategy, labelled “Fintech 2030”, aimed at embedding artificial intelligence (AI) deeply into the financial sector and accelerating the tokenisation of real-world assets (RWAs) within the city’s regulatory framework.
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| Photo Credits: Info.Gov.HK |
The strategy encompasses more than 40 discrete initiatives grouped under four strategic pillars summarised by the acronym “DART,” which means: Data, Artificial Intelligence, Resilience and Tokenisation.
- Under the “Data” pillar the HKMA intends to “develop robust and future-ready infrastructure to support secure, efficient and scalable data sharing as well as bolster cross-border payment connectivity.”
- For the “AI” pillar the authority plans a “holistic strategy” to drive “the adoption of AI across the financial sector in Hong Kong and beyond, as well as develop shared, scalable AI infrastructure and finance-specific models in collaboration with industry stakeholders.”
- The “Resilience” pillar focuses on building cyber-security controls, quantum-safe infrastructure and reinforcing core settlement infrastructure.
- The “Tokenisation” pillar sets out to “accelerate the tokenisation of real-world assets (RWAs), including financial assets, and lead by example by regularising the issuance of tokenised government bonds and exploring the concept of tokenising the Exchange Fund papers.”
HKMA Chief Executive Eddie Yue said the city is entering “Fintech 3.0” and that the earlier phases — starting with the 2017 strategy and followed by a 2021 update — focused on digital banking and fintech practicality respectively.
The original HKMA fintech strategy launched in 2017 for “Fintech 1.0” introduced digital-banking licences and other enablers.
The 2021 iteration emphasised practical applications in payments and transactions (“Fintech 2.0”).
In 2024 the HKMA began pilots for tokenised finance infrastructure including the “Project Ensemble” wholesale CBDC sandbox.
With the Fintech 2030 strategy, Hong Kong aims to shift from enabling fintech to embedding it as part of core financial-market operations. For example, under tokenisation the HKMA intends to utilise new forms of digital money, including the e-HKD (electronic Hong Kong dollar), tokenised deposits and regulated stablecoins, to settle tokenised assets.
The data-sharing initiative has already seen groundwork: the HKMA in May 2024 launched a Shenzhen-Hong Kong cross-boundary data-validation platform in partnership with mainland Chinese authorities, using blockchain technology and data hashing to verify documents without transferring original data.
In the tokenisation domain, the HKMA plans to begin with tokenised money market funds as mature real-value use cases and then expand to bonds, trade-finance assets and other real-world assets.
The strategy ties in with other shifts in the regulatory environment: On the same day, the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) announced eased rules to allow local virtual-asset trading platforms (VATPs) to share global order books with overseas affiliates and to access global trading liquidity.
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| Credits: Info.Gov.HK |
Observers tracking tokenisation in Hong Kong note that the HKMA strategy references a potentially large scale-up. A Reuters report earlier this year pointed to a Chinese advisory to brokers to pause RWA business in Hong Kong, reflecting regulatory sensitivity even as Hong Kong proceeds with its plans.
The HKMA executive described AI as “the most transformative” of the four pillars and pledged to release an AI-specific strategy covering banks, technology vendors and academic partners, adding that the sandbox for generative AI is being expanded.
The launch of Fintech 2030 takes place during Hong Kong FinTech Week 2025, which has grown substantially since its inception in 2016 and is being used as a platform for the HKMA to present its roadmap.
Implementation will be phased across the next five years, with industry and infrastructure elements aligned to the four pillars. The full scope of regulatory changes, funding mechanisms and industry-partnership models is expected to be published in detailed follow-up documents.
