Daily edition
Material developments in payments, digital finance and regulation, selected for an HKMA audience.
5 stories
If the Fed broadens or clarifies direct access rules, nonbank or narrowly chartered payment providers could reduce reliance on intermediary banks for settlement, reshaping competition and risk allocation in U.S. payments.
If implemented as described, Hong Kong would move closer to real-value settlement rails for tokenised deposits and fixed-income instruments, reducing frictions in interbank settlement and strengthening the market infrastructure needed for tokenised securities.
If the model works in production, banks could manage cross-border settlement liquidity in near real time across multiple institutions without maintaining as many pre-funded bilateral accounts, potentially lowering operational friction and trapped liquidity.
This shows a remittance incumbent using stablecoins not just for crypto access but as payments infrastructure to reduce settlement delays and working-capital costs while keeping the customer and merchant experience familiar.
The order creates a regulated pathway for on-chain trading of tokenized listed equities, potentially lowering launch barriers for market operators experimenting with blockchain-based market structure.