Hong Kong grants stablecoin licences to HSBC and Standard Chartered

Vidhya Edwards Munnangi

Fri, April 10, 2026 astatine 10:03 AM CDT 2 min read

Hong Kong has awarded its archetypal licences for stablecoin issuance to HSBC and Anchorpoint Financial, a task backed by Standard Chartered, making them the archetypal approved issuers of integer tokens linked to the Hong Kong dollar.

Anchorpoint Financial is jointly owned by Standard Chartered, Hong Kong Telecommunications and Animoca Brands.

In a abstracted development, South China Morning Post reported that HSBC is readying to rotation retired its Hong Kong dollar stablecoin successful the second fractional of this twelvemonth done its PayMe work and mobile banking application.

The archetypal signifier volition screen person-to-person transfers and payments to merchants.

Users volition besides beryllium capable to usage the token to subscribe to tokenised concern products wrong the app.

HSBC Hong Kong CEO Maggie Ng said the stablecoin would not connection interest, though it would alteration quicker settlement.

She added that the slope oregon merchants mightiness supply incentives to enactment adoption. Ng besides said HSBC whitethorn widen the offering adjacent twelvemonth to see stablecoins tied to different currencies.

Anchorpoint main enforcement Dominic Maffei said astatine a media briefing connected Friday that the task plans to motorboat a Hong Kong dollar stablecoin, HKD At Par (HKDAP), from the 2nd quarter. Its aboriginal accent volition beryllium connected organization clients, and it does not program to people retail users astatine the outset.

Maffei said stablecoins could little transaction expenses and enactment 24-hour settlement.

HKMA CEO Eddie Yue said: “The granting of stablecoin issuer licences is an important milestone for the improvement of integer assets successful Hong Kong. The regulatory authorities provides an orderly operating situation for stablecoin issuers to use innovative technologies portion ensuring robust idiosyncratic extortion and effectual hazard management, which volition foster the improvement of a healthy, responsible, and sustainable stablecoin ecosystem.”

"Hong Kong grants stablecoin licences to HSBC and Standard Chartered" was primitively created and published by Electronic Payments International, a GlobalData owned brand.