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Hong Kong taps banks, lawyers and crypto firms to help rewrite rules for tokenised bonds
HKMA sets up the collective, spanning 21 institutions, in push to expand blockchain-based issuance beyond government pilots
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Hong Kong’s de facto central bank has formed a group of industry experts to help remove legal and regulatory hurdles to tokenized bonds, as authorities seek to move beyond pilot projects and encourage wider adoption from private issuers.
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) said on Friday it had established a Tokenised Bond Expert Group comprising 21 institutions spanning banks, law firms, market infrastructure providers and digital asset companies to support the development of the city’s tokenised bond market.
Members include major lenders such as HSBC, Standard Chartered, UBS, Bank of China (Hong Kong) and JPMorgan Securities, alongside law firms including A&O Shearman, Clifford Chance and Linklaters, as well as Ant Digital Technologies, digital asset firm HashKey Group and market infrastructure operator CMU OmniClear.
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The move marks the latest step in Hong Kong’s push to position itself as a regional hub for tokenised fixed-income products after several years of government-led digital bond issuances.
The group of experts held its first round of discussions in May, focusing on Hong Kong’s legal and regulatory framework and how it applies to tokenised bond issuance and trading, according to HKMA.
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The feedback would help guide the regulator’s ongoing work with Hong Kong governmental body Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau to review potential enhancements to rules on tokenised securities, the HKMA said, adding that details would be announced separately.
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