HKMA to cooperate with Shenzhen, Singapore on fintech development
Chief executive Norman Chan lays out blueprint to ‘digitise’ trade finance using blockchain technology
Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), the city’s banking regulator and de facto central bank, has announced new agreements with Singapore and the city of Shenzhen to encourage further collaboration on fintech development.
“It is crucial for Hong Kong to enhance collaboration with other fintech centres,” said Norman Chan Tak-lam, its chief executive, speaking on the third day of Hong Kong Fintech Week 2017 on Wednesday.
Financial services regulators around the world are looking at how to cooperate better on building common frameworks within which banks and technology firms use new ideas that work seamlessly across borders.
Chan signed a memorandum of understanding between the HKMA and the Monetary Authority of Singapore on Wednesday to formalise the relationship between the two watchdogs.
The first project to be covered by the scheme will be an attempt to link the two jurisdictions’ efforts to use distributed ledger technology (DLT), commonly known as blockchain, in trade finance.
Seven banks in Hong Kong have been working on the Hong Kong Trade Finance Programme, which uses DLT to rationalise procedures, which will now be linked with similar efforts in Singapore.