Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) have agreed to deepen cooperation across digital assets, tokenisation, trade finance and financial infrastructure.
The central banks will establish a joint policy-focused workstream to explore compliant cross-border stablecoin use cases between Hong Kong and Malaysia.
The agreement followed a high-level bilateral meeting in Hong Kong on 2 October, where the two regulators discussed financial developments, banking regulation, fintech, payments, capital market connectivity, local currency usage and Islamic finance.
Digital asset innovation will form a key part of the collaboration. BNM and the HKMA plan to exchange policy and regulatory insights on tokenisation and digital money.
They will also explore collaboration and share knowledge on data-driven applications, including the Commercial Data Interchange (CDI) and CargoX, to expand trade finance access for small and medium-sized enterprises in both markets.
The two central banks also plan to improve financial infrastructure links by enhancing connectivity between their real-time gross settlement systems.
For capital markets, the central banks will explore linking Hong Kong’s Central Moneymarkets Unit (CMU) with Malaysia’s Real-time Electronic Transfer of Funds and Securities System (RENTAS). RENTAS serves as Malaysia’s multi-currency real-time gross settlement and central securities depository system.
BNM and the HKMA will also jointly promote greater use of local currencies in bilateral trade and investment.
Their regulatory cooperation will include mechanisms to improve cross-border cyber resilience and strengthen anti-scam and anti-fraud efforts.
The collaboration also covers Islamic finance, with both regulators supporting industry engagement, talent development, sustainable finance and cross-border investment.
“This high-level meeting marks an important milestone in deepening collaboration between our two institutions to support financial market development and economic growth,”
said Eddie Yue, Chief Executive of the HKMA.
Yue said the two regulators aim to advance fintech and digital asset innovation while improving the efficiency of cross-border local currency transactions. They also plan to strengthen market connectivity and support the growth of Islamic finance.
Featured image credit: Edited by Fintech News Hong Kong, based on image by HKMA
