Hong Kong speeding up financial market reforms with focus on resilience: Paul Chan Hong Kong is accelerating reforms of its financial market by making the sector’s ecosystem more resilient and comprehensive, the finance minister has said, as the city grapples with geopolitics and a rapidly changing technology-led global landscape. Paul Chan Mo-po also said on Sunday that Hong Kong would take a two-pronged approach by strengthening its advantages and diversifying the financial market to contribute to the nation’s development into a financial powerhouse. The city had a key role to play in China’s financial development and was in a favourable position to reform the market, he said. “Artificial intelligence and blockchain are not only revolutionising technical tools but also reshaping capital flows and the boundaries of financial services, creating new opportunities for financial market development,” he wrote in his weekly blog. “We are accelerating institutional reform and product innovation in the financial market, striving to more effectively transform the tremendous disruptive power of technological change into a driver of economic growth.” Chan said favourable conditions for reform included the city’s strong performance in the stock market in the past year and its worldwide ranking as an international financial centre. He noted that the HK$150 billion (US$19.3 billion) in proceeds raised from initial public offerings (IPOs) so far this year had put the city in the No 1 spot globally, with a marked increase in participation by international, long-term funds. The stock market was buoyant, as reflected in an accumulated gain of more than 30 per cent in the benchmark Hang Seng Index in the year to date, in addition to a record-breaking daily turnover averaging HK$250 billion, he added. Chan said that even mainland Chinese stocks listed locally had performed well amid the buoyant market. “In the face of profound changes in the global political and economic landscape, we must seize the current momentum and, through more forward-looking reforms and initiatives, transform these developments into lasting momentum driving higher-quality, more diversified development of Hong Kong’s financial industry.” Chan added that the reform would be crucial in consolidating and enhancing Hong Kong’s status as a global financial centre. “It is also a crucial path to unlocking growth potential and contributing to China’s development into a financial powerhouse,” he said. He noted the combined market capitalisation of the city, Shanghai and Shenzhen’s stock markets was equivalent to China’s gross domestic product (GDP). In comparison, the combined market capitalisation of the US’ two largest stock markets was twice as big as the United States’ GDP, he said. To press ahead with reform, Hong Kong would refine the existing stock market, asset and management services and green finance, and accelerate expansion into new areas of fixed income, currency, commodities and digital assets, he said. Last week, the city’s de facto central bank, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, and the Securities and Futures Commission rolled out a development blueprint for fixed income and currency markets. The blueprint sets out plans to broaden offshore yuan usage and expand cross-border Connect schemes to enhance offshore liquidity and yuan-linked product offerings. It also proposed widening the investor base for fixed income products to include family offices, investment funds and corporate treasury centres. “The goal is to build Hong Kong into an important global hub for fixed income and currency products,” Chan said. He added that it was also crucial to make it easier for investors to access bond trading, for example, through the HKMA’s subsidiary, CMU OmniClear, which operates a central money markets unit to clear bond products. The financial secretary said CMU OmniClear would join forces with the Hong Kong stock exchange to allow investors to use the same clearing platform to manage different stocks and bonds, including assets under the Connect schemes. Hong Kong manages about 80 per cent of global offshore yuan payments and hosts the largest offshore yuan liquidity pool, with deposits reaching 938.2 billion yuan (US$120.7 billion) as of July. https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/hong-kong-economy/article/3327135/hong-kong-speeding-financial-market-reforms-focus-resilience-paul-chan (ICE HONG KONG)

Fonte notizia: South China Morning Post