Hong Kong’s real-time transfer service platform, Faster Payment System (FPS), will be linked with UnionPay International by the end of this year to broaden its cross-border payment capabilities, allowing users to pay merchants more easily across more than 40 overseas markets, the city’s monetary authority said on Monday.

Speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of Hong Kong FinTech Week x StartmeupHK 2026, Eddie Yue Wai-man, chief executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), announced a series of initiatives to boost the city’s fintech capabilities.

He said the FPS will gradually support over 100 million merchants that are part of UnionPay and its partner networks across the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the Chinese mainland, and more than 40 overseas markets. This will allow FPS users to make retail payments in those markets by simply scanning QR codes, facilitating both local and overseas spending to enhance cross-border financial connectivity.

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"Regions expected to be in the first batch to support FPS payments will likely include the Hong Kong SAR, the Chinese mainland, Malaysia, and other neighboring areas," said Howard Lee Tat Chi, deputy chief executive of the HKMA, during a news conference on progress and new initiaitves under Fintech 2030 on Monday.

Fintech 2030 is a strategic roadmap launched by the HKMA last year, which aims to drive Hong Kong’s fintech development.

In addition to facilitating cross-border payments, the HKMA will launch Project SAGE (Securing Agentic Finance with Governance and Enablement) to advance the practical application of agentic finance within a robust governance framework.

Agentic finance refers to the use of AI agents that assist or replace humans in making and executing financial decisions autonomously. For example, an AI agent could analyze a consumer's shopping list, compare prices across vendors, select products, and complete the settlement via a payment network.

Addressing potential risks associated with AI agents, such as "how to verify an AI agent's identity and determine liability when a transaction goes wrong", Alvin Li Hao Yang, head of banking supervision at the HKMA, said that Project SAGE is specifically designed to promote the secure and responsible development of agentic finance.

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Furthermore, through its Project Ensemble, the HKMA will enable 24/7 real-value transactions for tokenized deposits, breaking through the operating-hour limits of traditional banks and allowing for timely fund allocation.

Meanwhile, to ensure financial security, the HKMA, alongside the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and industry partners, has launched the post-quantum cryptography (PQC) Toolkit to defend against potential quantum computing threats to current encryption mechanisms.

"Hong Kong is well placed to capitalize on new growth opportunities in fintech. Building on the good progress that we have made under Fintech 2030, banks and fintech firms can better harness data, AI, tokenization and other emerging technologies," said Yue. He added that Hong Kong will continue to foster an enabling environment and support the sustainable development of the fintech ecosystem.

Contact the writer at akirawang@chinadailyhk.com