At the 2025 edition of Hong Kong Fintech Week, which ran from November 03 to 07, the financial sector, the technology community, and the Hong Kong government unveiled several key initiatives aimed at driving innovation, fostering collaboration, and accelerating technology adoption in financial services, with the goal of enhancing efficiency and future-proofing the financial system.

Co-located with the StartmeupHK Festival 2025, Hong Kong Fintech Week 2025 marked the tenth edition of the city’s flagship fintech event, welcoming a combined 45,000 visitors from over 120 economies, representing a new record. Combined, the events featured more than 1,000 distinguished speakers, 800 exhibitors and 30 Chinese Mainland and international delegations.

Running under the theme “Curating the New Fintech Era”, Hong Kong Fintech Week 2025 emphasized the transformative impact of artificial intelligence (AI) and tokenization, as well as the role of regulators in supporting innovation while safeguarding financial stability. Panels and discussions also explored trends such as open banking, payment modernization, and digital transformation, highlighting how these developments are reshaping financial services and the broader economy.

Hong Kong: a prominent fintech hub and gateway to Mainland China

The main conference kicked off on November 03, 2025, with opening remarks by John Lee, Chief Executive of the Government of the Hong Kong SAR. Lee highlighted Hong Kong’s new era of innovation, grounded in collaboration and a focus on helping companies scale globally. He emphasized Hong Kong’s burgeoning fintech industry, which now hosts 1,200 fintech companies from around the world, and highlighted Hong Kong’s collaborative approach to scaling businesses internationally.

Later that day, a panel with Paul Chan, Financial Secretary of the Government of the Hong Kong SAR; Georges Elhedery, Group Chief Executive of HSBC; and Bill Winters, Group Chief Executive of Standard Chartered, stressed Hong Kong’s role as a bridge between global businesses and China, and as a launchpad for Mainland Chinese companies going global.

Panelists noted that Hong Kong will surpass Switzerland as the world’s top cross-border wealth management hub, powered by its strong financial ecosystem and integration with the Greater Bay Area. The city is also increasingly connected to regions like the Middle East and Southeast Asia, reinforcing its status as a leading international financial centre and fintech hub.

Lu Lei, Deputy Governor of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), emphasized in his keynote the growing cooperation between Mainland China and Hong Kong, which now span next‑generation technologies, interoperable cross‑border payments, and digital RMB use cases.

Hong Kong doubles down on fintech, AI, tokenization

In his keynote address, Eddie Yue, Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), unveiled the central bank’s “Fintech 2030” strategy as the city enters its “Fintech 3.0 Era” where technology is embedded into daily life. This strategy, structured around the data, AI, resilience and tokenization (DART) roadmap, aims to cement Hong Kong as a robust, resilient, future-ready hub.

It includes over 40 initiatives across four pillars:

• Creating next-generation data and payment infrastructure to support secure, efficient and scalable data sharing, and bolster cross-border payment connectivity;
• Implementing the new “Artificial Intelligence x Authorized Institutions” (AI2) Strategy, which will focus on driving the comprehensive and responsible adoption of AI across the financial sector in Hong Kong and beyond, as well as developing shared, scalable AI infrastructure and finance-specific models in collaboration with industry stakeholders;
• Enhancing business, technology and quantum resilience, notably through the launch of a new fintech-specific cybersecurity certification framework and a new system of early detection through real-time analysis; and
• Building a vibrant tokenization ecosystem by accelerating the tokenization of real-world assets (RWAs), including financial assets, regularizing the issuance of tokenized government bonds, and exploring the concept of tokenizing the exchange fund papers.

These initiatives will build on already high levels of adoption of technology in the financial services sector. Approximately 75% of Hong Kong’s financial institutions have already either adopted or piloted generative AI, according to HKMA, with hopes to increase this to over 87% within three to five years.

Regulating digital assets and stablecoins

During a fireside chat, Julia Leung, CEO of the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), discussed two new circulars issued on November 03, aimed at attracting global liquidity and expanding the range of products and services offered by digital asset platforms.

The guidance allows licensed virtual asset trading platforms (VATPs) to link their order books with affiliated overseas platforms to access international liquidity, improve pricing, and offer more seamless trading for Hong Kong investors. It also permits trading in new virtual assets and tokenized securities for professional investors and allow associated entities to provide custody services.

Leung also said that the SFC intends to expand the licensing regime to cover not only dealing, but VA advice and VA management, and is currently in discussion with the government. She shared that ensuing requirements will primarily focus on managing the risk to private keys.

Due to the high risk nature of VA custody, Leung stressed that the SFC expects to license only the most robust and reliable players in Hong Kong to ensure it remains a sustainable, trustworthy environment.

In his keynote, Eric Yip, Executive Director of Intermediaries at the SFC, discussed the SFC’s strategy of “moving steadfast” in digital asset regulation, emphasizing the importance of stability over speed in digital asset development.

Yip pointed to significant progress in recent times, noting a doubling of licensed entities since 2024 and the release of the ASPIRe roadmap in February this year.

Later that day, the “Tech Megatrends and the Next $1 Trillion Asset Class” panel explored the regulation and adoption of stablecoins, noting that 11 jurisdictions, including Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, the UK, the US, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), are already regulating stablecoins to varying degrees and driving innovation in cross-border payments, reflecting a global recognition of their potential to enhance financial efficiency, and liquidity.

The potential of blockchain

During a fireside chat, Jenny Johnson, CEO of Franklin Templeton, shared the firm’s digital innovation strategy, emphasizing its pioneering role as the only asset manager operating a tokenized money market fund natively on a public blockchain. This has allowed for intraday payments, and has lowered account minimums from US$500 to US$20, enhancing financial inclusion.

Franklin Templeton is now integrating tokenized funds with stablecoins and collaborating with crypto exchanges like Binance, which has 270 million wallets, to bring traditional investment products to digital platforms.

Johnson also highlighted Franklin Templeton’s use of AI to improve lending and investment decisions, leveraging micro-signals to identify risk and improve outcomes.

Modernizing cross-border payments

In a panel discussion titled “Cross-Border Finance: The Joint Role of Banks and Fintech in Modern Payment Rails”, Maggie Ng, CEO and Head of Retail Banking and Wealth, Hong Kong, at HSBC, highlighted the growing demand for faster, more transparent, and low-cost solutions.

The panelists also addressed the rise of fraud and emerging risks, with Ng explaining HSBC’s shift in fraud detection from a strict “zero-loss tolerance” approach to one that treats “acceptable mistakes” as learning opportunities. The bank now leverages data, blockchain, and AI to power tokenized deposits and real-time fraud monitoring.

Forest Lin, Corporate Vice President, Head of Tencent Financial Technology, Tencent, said that his company employs deep learning and AI to detect suspicious transactions and enhance trust in cross-border payments.

Transforming trade and SME financing

The “AI & Data Innovation in Cross-Border Trade and SME Financing” panel explored how the latest innovation in AI is transforming trade and small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) financing.

In Hong Kong, SMEs represent over 98% of enterprises and employ more than 45% of private sector workers. Yet, they still face a lack of resources, complex cross-border payments, and regulatory compliance, which companies like Aspire, FundPark and LianLian Global are addressing.

FundPark, a trade finance solution provider, employs an AI-enabled platform that’s able to deliver credit decision in under 180 seconds. The company claims it has distributed over US$6 billion in loans, supporting more than 32,000 shop fronts, with over US$3 billion advanced in the past year alone.

LianLian Global, a cross-border payment specialist, standardizes KYC services and aggregates data for smoother cross-border transactions.

Finally, Aspire, a Singaporean business banking services provider, automates multiple KYC steps to reduce onboarding time by 55%, and eliminate cash flow delays.

Digital transformation in the banking sector

In the “Personal Banking in the Platform Era: Trust, Technology, and Cross-Border Access” panel, banking leaders examined how technology is reshaping financial services.

Arnold Chow, General Manager, Personal Banking Product Department, Bank of China (Hong Kong), shared the bank’s successful digital transformation journey in the past five years, reaching 30% market share in some key products and improving efficiency ratios by 8%. He explained Bank of China’s use of AI for wealth, risk protection, and staff training, and said that the bank’s goal is now to expand digital partnerships both within and beyond the Greater Bay Area.

Alfian Sharifuddin, Managing Director and Head of Technology and Operations Hong Kong and Mainland China, DBS Bank (Hong Kong), highlighted the need for trust in AI and the challenge posed by AI hallucinations.

To address this, DBS developed a framework utilizing Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), enabling its Large Language Model (LLM) to operate in a controlled environment and reduce hallucination risks.

Key corporate announcements

Hong Kong Fintech Week 2025 also featured several corporate announcements.

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) announced the opening of an official office in Hong Kong to promote the sustainable development of infrastructure in the region.

The AIIB is a multilateral development bank and international financial institution that aims to improve economic and social outcomes in Asia.

The organization chose Hong Kong for its role as a hub connecting long-term capital and digital finance innovation to meet sustainability goals, Liqun Jin, President and Chair of the Board of Directors, Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, said.

WeBank, China’s first digital bank, announced plans to establish Hong Kong as the regional innovation and sales hub for its subsidiary WeBank Technology Services. WeBank Technology Services offers digital finance and infrastructure solutions to clients worldwide. It has already expanded into markets including Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand, engaging with over 20 potential partners and securing cooperation agreements worth over US$100 million.

Tencent, meanwhile, showcased innovations in borderless payments, AI, and cloud-powered financial ecosystems. Its affiliate, Tencent Cloud, now supports over 10,000 financial customers across 20 countries and regions, with recent projects that include helping Fusion Bank complete a next-generation core-banking system migration and supporting Airstar Bank’s full move to cloud operations.

Finally, the Ant Group announced that it is expanding cross-border services from Hong Kong, supporting Mainland Chinese enterprises with cross-border payments, trade financing, and accounts.

The initiative supports the city’s GoGlobal Task Force, launched by the Hong Kong government as a platform to assist Mainland Chinese enterprises in expanding internationally by using Hong Kong as a strategic platform. The task force aims primarily to help them overcome challenges in international payments, and regulatory compliance.

Hong Kong as a global startup hub

This year, Hong Kong Fintech Week was jointly presented with the StartmeupHK Festival. The StartmeupHK is a government initiative launched in 2015 to help international startups set up or expand in Hong Kong.

Since its launch, the initiative has helped grow the city’s startup ecosystem from 1,600 to 4,700 startups, marking a 10% year-on-year increase, according to Algernon Yau, Hong Kong’s Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development.

Looking ahead, the government remains committed to supporting SMEs and startups, he said. For example, the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau has recently introduced the Economic and Trade Express to support local SMEs and startups in exploring business opportunities in overseas markets. The government is also planning to expand the network and coverage of its overseas economic and trade offices (ETOs) to cover Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. The new ETO is expected to commence operation by end of this year.

Featured image: Edited by Fintech News Hong Kong, based on image via InvestHK