The Hong Kong Monetary Authority has set out the next phase of its Fintech 2030 strategy, which will pair new technology initiatives with a renewed emphasis on governance and risk management. Speaking at Hong Kong Fintech Week on Monday, authority chief executive Eddie Yue said the HKMA is launching Project Sage to examine the application and governance of "agentic finance" – artificial intelligence systems that can execute tasks on behalf of users. "The main purpose of the Sage project is to hope that, under agentic finance, we can both promote application and pay attention to governance," he said. Yue said a cross-sector expert panel would bring together finance, payments, professional services, technology and academic representatives to explore use cases, sandbox testing, interoperability standards and governance safeguards. The HKMA is also issuing a discussion paper on banks’ use of agentic AI, seeking views on governance models, responsibility arrangements and a possible central register of trusted agents. Yue said the aim is to set rules that allow innovation while managing risks. He also said the authority would launch a post-quantum cryptography toolbox with the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology to help banks prepare for the challenges stemming from breakthroughs in quantum computing. On tokenisation, Yue said the HKMA is introducing tokenised central bank money to enable 24/7 settlement of interbank tokenised deposits and would expand the number of participating banks to support cross-lender transfers around the clock. "The benefit is that, for example, quite a number of enterprises with global liquidity to manage can, if round-the-clock tokenised deposit transfers are achieved, make payments at any time and anywhere, across different accounts and even cross-border," he said. "And for retail investors, if in the future they want to invest in different retail tokenised financial products, they can also more flexibly do their investments 24/7, strengthening the flexibility and security of their asset allocation." Yue said the HKMA would further pilot tokenised Exchange Fund Bills in the secondary market and explore whether regulated stablecoins could serve as a payment channel. He stressed that innovation must be matched by governance and risk management so it can go further, land better and benefit more people. Edited by Tony Sabine

The Employees' Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) launched WhatsApp-based services on Sunday. As part of the move, subscribers will now be able to check their Provident Fund (PF) balance, access passbook details, and view their latest five transactions through the messaging platform. It is also said to provide personalised guidance to members completing requirements u...

Asian share markets mostly slipped on Monday as worries about the sustainability of the AI investment boom loomed over the tech sector, while the high price of oil limited the safe-haven appeal of sovereign bonds. In Hong Kong, the benchmark Hang Seng Index opened up seven points, or 0.03 percent, at 23,301. The tech index rose 20 points, or 0.55 percent, to 3,775 while the China enterprises index edged up 14 points, or 0.18 percent, to 7,876. The Shanghai Composite Index opened 15 points, or 0.4 percent, higher at 3,614. The Shenzhen Component Index was 63 points, or 0.59 percent, up at 10,897 while the ChiNext Index rose 25 points, or 1.05 percent, to 2,439. In Tokyo, the Nikkei opened 318 points, or 0.51 percent, lower at 62,972, moved up into positive territory before slipping again to be 215 points lower at one stage before lunch. In Seoul, the Kospi opened 92 points, or 1.62 percent, down at 5,637 before regaining ground to be 87 points higher at one stage before noon. The mixed openings came as concerns about negative cash flow and the sheer scale of AI capex saw the cost of insuring against corporate defaults blow out last week, while gold hit a one-year low amid talk stressed investors were selling to raise money for margin calls. An added wrinkle is the US midterms, with a win by Democrats in either or both houses may result in more political hurdles for data centres. Adding to the air of unease were withdrawals from Binance as the world's biggest cryptocurrency exchange went back online on Sunday after hackers stole billions from the platform last week. All of which raises the stakes for earnings this week with Apple, AMD and Palantir set to report in the wake of Intel's near 29 percent tumble on Friday. Analysts at Goldman Sachs expect capex by hyperscalers to almost double to US$800 billion this year, and rise further to US$1.2 trillion in 2027. At the same time, they see S&P 500 earnings per share growth of nearly 30 percent in 2026, slowing to 18 percent next year. "Earnings results have underscored the fundamental challenge facing equity investors – earnings growth is strong, but it is no longer accelerating," wrote Ben Snider, Goldman's chief US equity strategist, in a note. "Similarly, Q3 results support our view that AI investment spending will continue to grow but that the growth rate of AI capex is peaking." The recent retreat in equities provided a reprieve for safe-haven bonds, with investors wondering if a sustained selloff in the stock market could deter the Federal Reserve from hiking interest rates in December. Futures still imply a 72 percent chance of a quarter-point rate rise, but now only have 55 basis points of total tightening priced in compared to more than 70 basis points a month ago. (Reuters/Xinhua) Edited by Tony Sabine

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