Hong Kong’s Under Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Howard Chan, visited Thailand to attend a financial technology conference and met with Robert Troy, Irish Minister of State at the Department of Finance, and Dipesh Shah, Executive Director of the International Financial Services Centres Authority (India), to explore bilateral cooperation in green finance and fintech. He invited them to send delegations to Hong Kong for the Asian Financial Forum and Hong Kong Fintech Week.
Mr. Chan also met with the Deputy Secretary-General of the Thai Securities and Exchange Commission and the Assistant Governor of the Bank of Thailand, reviewing the achievements of bilateral cooperation and expressing hope for deepening cooperation. Examples include the launch of cross-border QR code payment linkage FPS x PromptPay in 2023; the announcement to explore cross-border tokenisation use cases in 2024; and the HKEX recognising the Stock Exchange of Thailand as a recognised exchange in 2025, allowing Thai companies to conduct secondary listings in Hong Kong. He also met with the Bangkok Startup Association, encouraging local fintech companies to set up businesses in Hong Kong, and attended listing promotion meetings to encourage Thai companies to list in Hong Kong and set up family offices.
Hong Kong plans to optimise regulation of virtual asset service providers
Separately, Mr. Chan revealed that Hong Kong is drafting a regulatory regime covering four types of virtual asset service providers (trading, custody, advisory, and management), aiming to submit legislative proposals to the Legislative Council within this year. He disclosed that there are currently 12 licensed virtual asset trading platforms in Hong Kong, with another seven applications being processed. Two stablecoin issuer licences have been issued this month, and business is expected to commence within a few months.
Mr. Chan pointed out that Hong Kong’s IPO fundraising reached HK$280 billion last year, ranking first globally, and in the first quarter of this year, fundraising was nearly HK$110 billion, also ranking first. The HKEX is consulting the market on enhancing the competitiveness of the listing mechanism, including different voting rights and listing rules for overseas issuers, to consolidate Hong Kong’s position as the preferred fundraising destination for growth enterprises.
