The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) and the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau (FSTB) have completed the first phase of a review on adopting distributed ledger technology (DLT) in the local fixed income market.
According to a joint announcement, findings confirm the city’s legal framework is flexible enough to handle tokenised bond issuances (representing traditional bonds as digital tokens on a blockchain).
To provide clarity on DLT-based record keeping, the Companies Registry issued FAQs.
The FAQs affirm that maintaining a register of debenture holders via DLT fulfils existing record-keeping requirements under the Companies Ordinance.
The next phase of the review will begin in the second half of the year to explore legislative changes for the broader use of DLT in the fixed income market and digital assets more broadly.
Authorities plan to examine the electronic execution of issuance documents for tokenised bonds.
The proposed changes aim to improve efficiency and enable further automation in the issuance process. This includes recognising electronic signatures in the creation of trusts for tokenised bonds and funds.
The review will consider new concepts of possession and transfer for tokenised fixed income instruments.
“By providing clarifications on DLT record-keeping requirements today and exploring further legislative enhancements in the next phase, we are keeping Hong Kong at the forefront of Web3 development,”
said Christopher Hui, Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury.
The government has already completed three tokenised bond issuances, including a November 2025 issuance that was the world’s largest digital bond at the time.
That issuance was the first to integrate tokenised central bank money in the form of e-HKD and e-CNY.
“This review aims to build on this momentum to establish a robust and forward-looking fixed income ecosystem in Hong Kong,”
said Eddie Yue, Chief Executive of the HKMA.
The review was first announced in the 2025-26 Budget, building on digital asset policies published last June. Further directions were outlined in the 2026-27 Budget.
Featured image credit: Edited by Fintech News Hong Kong, based on image by SourceOfPhotos via Magnific
