The 2026-27 Budget is pushing HKEX’s expansion in cross-border trading

Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po’s measures include the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and CMU OmniClear studying updates to financial infrastructure across various asset classes

4-MIN READ4-MIN

Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited in Exchange Square, Central. The stock exchange has ongoing plans to further facilitate connectivity between the mainland Chinese and Hong Kong markets. Photo: Jelly Tse

Published: 2:30pm, 29 Jun 2026

After a stand-out IPO year, Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) is betting that finessing the mechanics of a trade – the clearing, settlement and collateral – will keep issuers and investors of all kinds coming back.

At the heart of that bet is an ambitious plan to build what Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po has called an infrastructure to “facilitate cross‑product and cross‑boundary collateral connectivity” between the mainland Chinese and Hong Kong markets.

Chan’s 2026-27 Budget, announced in February, set in motion a study by CMU OmniClear Holdings – a group convened by Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) – and HKEX. The aim is to create a single platform covering equity and debt securities from Hong Kong and the mainland, with cross-product and cross-boundary collateral connectivity, and links to global securities depositories.

CMU OmniClear, which has operated the Central Moneymarkets Unit (CMU) on behalf of the HKMA since 2025, initially signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with HKEX on post-trade infrastructure in March 2025.

Andrew Lam, managing director, BDO. Photo: Handout

In November, HKEX acquired a 20 per cent stake in CMU OmniClear, which further cemented the partnership as part of its push to deepen Hong Kong’s fixed-income and currencies ecosystem.