HK's securities watchdog unveils strategic action plan to implement Five-Year Plan, Policy Address

Hong Kong’s securities watchdog has unveiled a strategic action plan to promote the high-quality development of the capital markets and further consolidate the SAR’s competitive advantages as an international financial center through a series of short-, medium-, and long-term measures.

The measures in the plan dovetail with the policy objectives in the Five-Year Plan and the Policy Address, covering important areas including market development, the internationalization of the yuan, mutual market access, wealth management, risk management, market quality, and financial security.

Key initiatives include:

• Yuan: Expanding products denominated, traded and settled in yuan, developing yuan hedging tools and expanding yuan foreign exchange futures.
• Markets: Moving toward a T+1 settlement cycle, enabling clearing houses to accept Chinese government bonds as margin collateral, and implementing a paperless securities regime.
• Connects: Launching a yuan trading counter under Stock Connect's southbound trading, establishing a REIT Connect, and encouraging mainland funds to invest in Hong Kong ETFs.
• Listings: Broadening listings for Belt and Road and Southeast Asian enterprises, alongside a 2027 consultation to streamline prospectus rules.
• Commodities: Supporting a government-backed central gold clearing and settlement system and refining a regulatory regime for OTC derivatives to support physical commodity trading
• Oversight: developing tokenized real-world asset regulatory frameworks, including tokenized gold, and deploying AI in regulatory supervision, cybersecurity, and anti-money laundering surveillance

Hong Kong has always been a unique and trusted bridge between the mainland and the rest of the world, said the SFC chairman Kelvin Wong Tin-yau.

“Our mission is to further consolidate and enhance this unique advantage, enabling Hong Kong to better serve the overall development of our nation while creating value for global investors and the real economy,” Wong added. 

𝗗𝗼𝘄𝗻𝗹𝗼𝗮𝗱 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗔𝗽𝗽 ↓