HKMA eyes next level for Fintech 2030 with AI push

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...