Some 2,300 years ago, the poet Qu Yuan wrote a line that Chinese readers still quote frequently: Lu man man qi xiu yuan xi, wu jiang shang xia er qiu suo, or, “The road ahead is long and far, and I shall search high and low for my way.” Hong Kong’s road to becoming a global fintech center has certainly been long, and the city has searched high and low along it. The city showcases how far it has come at the 11th Hong Kong FinTech Week x StartmeupHK that runs till Friday.
The FinTech Week, which is filled with a series of events, is the city’s shop window, one of the year’s key occasions for investors, founders and policymakers from around the world to meet and see what Hong Kong has built. And there is plenty to see.
In the 10th FinTech Week, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) unveiled Fintech 2030, which rests on four pillars: next-generation data and payment infrastructure, artificial intelligence in finance, resilience against cyber and even quantum threats, and the tokenization of finance, with more than 40 additional initiatives. In February, a follow-up blueprint added flagship projects such as a Quantum Preparedness Index for Hong Kong’s Banking Sector and a cybersecurity baseline for fintech, shifting the focus from adoption to advancement. The really impressive part is how quickly this one has turned into projects that people can actually use.
Take digital assets. Hong Kong did not rush to open the doors; it built the rules first. The stablecoin law came into force in August 2025, and when the first issuer licenses were granted in April, they went to just two applicants out of 36, a sign that the city values trust over speed. That disciplined approach helps build the confidence that major financial institutions look for. Hong Kong is also building a track record in tokenized bond issuance. In November 2025, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region government completed its third tokenized green bond issuance, raising HK$10 billion ($1.27 billion) across four currencies and attracting subscription interest exceeding HK$130 billion. The issuance demonstrated the potential to scale the market while attracting a broader range of institutional investors. Next comes the settlement infrastructure, with Project Ensemble working toward around-the-clock settlement in central bank money. The September Policy Address and the city’s first five-year plan put tokenization firmly at the heart of the financial blueprint, alongside tokenized gold and other real-world assets. Few places in the world are building this infrastructure so methodically.
Then there is AI, which is quietly changing every corner of finance.
The city is moving from talking about AI to putting it into practice. In finance, that means a regulatory sandbox spanning banking, securities, insurance and pensions, where participating financial institutions receive supervisory guidance, technical support and complimentary access to computing resources at Cyberport’s AI Supercomputing Centre. It also means new guidance to help banks adopt AI responsibly. And the infrastructure is expanding: The Sandy Ridge Data Facility Cluster in the Northern Metropolis is projected to multiply Hong Kong’s computing capacity 36-fold by 2032. Even government services are joining in, with an AI assistant arriving on the iAM Smart app last month to answer residents’ questions in plain language. A city that tests AI carefully in finance, in public services, and in the lab is a city people can trust with it.
The results are visible in the rankings. Hong Kong remains third in the Global Financial Centres Index and first globally in fintech offerings, and the Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou cluster is again No 1 in the Global Innovation Index. The city was also the world’s top initial public offering venue in the first quarter, raising nearly six times the amount of a year earlier. Behind these headlines is a substantially maturing fintech ecosystem. Hong Kong was home to more than 1,200 fintech companies as of November 2025, alongside eight digital banks. The HKMA’s Fintech Supervisory Sandbox had approved over 400 pilot trials by the end of September, while the Global Fast Track program attracted more than 700 applicants from 70 economies in 2025. These figures point to an ecosystem combining established financial institutions, tech companies, and international entrepreneurship. For those who once said Hong Kong was “over”, these are stubborn opposing facts.
What gives Hong Kong its special edge is that it never works alone. The word “nexus” in this year’s theme says it all. Hong Kong and Shenzhen have agreed on an action plan to build a global fintech hub together, aiming for more than 20 shared financial application scenarios by 2027. Payment Connect lets money move in real time between the Chinese mainland’s payment system and Hong Kong’s Faster Payment System, and the Wealth Management Connect keeps making it easier for residents of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area to invest across the boundary. The Northern Metropolis is turning into an innovation district. And the new Huanggang Port opened last month, with joint inspection that cut clearance to several minutes, bringing Shenzhen’s laboratories, factories, and engineers closer to Hong Kong’s capital and talent than ever before. That combination would be hard to replicate anywhere else.
None of this happens by accident: Fintech needs an open economy, no exchange controls, a trusted legal system, simple and competitive taxes, and a deep pool of global institutions, and Hong Kong offers all of them, with more than 70 of the world’s 100 largest banks established in the city and over 440 fintech firms based at Cyberport alone. It also needs people. Hong Kong climbed to fourth place in the IMD World Talent Ranking last year, its highest ever, and first in Asia, and its universities, led by the University of Hong Kong, keep rising in the global and Asian rankings.
Fintech must also serve the wider economy. Since 2024, the HKMA and the banking sector have introduced three rounds of support measures that have benefited small and medium-sized enterprises in more than 89,000 cases, involving aggregate credit limits of over HK$209 billion. Separately, the HKMA launched its CargoX pilot in May, bringing together 21 participating banks to explore how cargo and trade data can improve credit assessment and expand access to trade finance for small and medium-sized enterprises. Together, these initiatives illustrate how financial support and better data infrastructure can help businesses obtain financing. Singapore, Dubai, and London are competing for the same prize. Hong Kong’s distinct advantage lies in its role as a bridge between the mainland and international markets.
The FinTech Week is also a progress report showing a city moving from strategy to licensing, from pilot projects toward live settlement, and from discussing AI to putting it to work.
Hong Kong’s fintech journey is far from over, but the city has built a substantial foundation on which to progress.
The author is a fintech adviser, a researcher, and a former business analyst for a Hong Kong publicly listed company.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
