The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has unveiled a 21 member tokenized bond expert group to help scale issuance in the jurisdiction. Together they aim to explore policy measures, market practices and innovations. The group has already met and provided input for legal and regulatory enhancements being developed with the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau (FSTB).
In 2025 Hong Kong was the global leader in digital bond issuance, with the government issuing the largest digital bond to date in November worth HK$10 billion ($1.27 billion). That was its third issuance, with plans to make it more regular. It was also the first digital bond to integrate tokenized central bank money for settlement, in the form of e-CNY and e-HKD. The HKMA also offers a subsidy through its Digital Bond Grant Scheme to cover a large part of the costs, which may have helped to attract numerous foreign issuers, especially from China and the Middle East, with Korea featuring multiple times this year.
Ten banks make up the largest component of the expert group, including a mix of the Hong Kong arms of the big five Chinese state banks, as well as international banks including Credit Agricole CIB, JP Morgan, HSBC, HSBC-owned Hang Seng Bank, Standard Chartered and UBS. Industry bodies ICMA and ASIFMA are participating alongside five law firms. The remaining organizations provide infrastructure or investments. They include Ant Digital Technologies, investment firm Guotai Junan International, licensed crypto exchange HashKey, and HKMA subsidiary and central securities depository CMU Omniclear.
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