HONG KONG – The Hong Kong Monetary Authority has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Chinese central bank to promote cross-boundary linkages for the Faster Payment System (FPS) between the two places, establishing a cooperation framework for the linkage.
The HKMA announcement came after Lu Lei, deputy governor of the People's Bank of China, and Howard Lee, deputy chief executive of the HKMA, met on Friday to exchange views on a range of topics of mutual interest.
Issues discussed between the two sides included financial cooperation between the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and pushing forward the FPS linkage, the de facto central bank of Hong Kong said in a press release on Friday night.
Earlier on Jan 24, the PBOC and the HKMA announced six policy measures to deepen the financial cooperation between Hong Kong and the mainland, in order to consolidate the HKSAR’s position as a global financial hub.
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The measures include promoting the use of mainland bonds as eligible collaterals; allowing foreign investors to participate in the mainland bond repurchase business; and promulgating the implementation arrangements of the enhanced Cross-boundary Wealth Management Connect Scheme.
Other measures are: introducing facilitative payment arrangements for Hong Kong and Macao residents purchasing properties in nine mainland cities of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area; expanding the scope of Shenzhen-Hong Kong cooperation on cross-boundary credit referencing pilots; and further expanding the cross-boundary e-CNY pilots in Hong Kong.
On Dec 4, 2023, the HKMA and Thailand's central bank launched a link for cross-border QR payments.
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With this linkage, travelers from the two places would be able to make retail payments by using their mobile payment applications to scan the Hong Kong FPS QR code and Thai PromptPay QR Code displayed by merchants, according to the statement.
