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With the local banking system as its anchor, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority issued the first batch of stablecoin issuer licences in April this year, raising expectations for banks’ participation in stablecoin issuance. Regulated banks could use this opportunity to improve payment and settlement efficiency, expand cross-border financial services, and further connect the digital-asset ecosystem with the real economy.

As the global shift toward digital currencies continues to mature, the stablecoin market is seeing a potentially significant new development. According to reports, more than 100 financial and technology institutions, including Visa and Stripe, have joined forces to form the Open Standard alliance, which is expected to launch the U.S. dollar stablecoin Open USD later this year.

Prof. Xiang Fang from HKU Business School noted in an interview with the Hong Kong Economic Journal Monthly that completely free capital flows are no panacea. There is broad agreement, especially after the 2008 financial crisis, that full capital account openness is not necessarily the optimal choice.

Recently, the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) introduced a new plan to rectify problems in cross-border securities, futures, and fund business activities. With the support of the Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the rules governing the opening of securities investment accounts in Hong Kong by Mainland clients were also updated simultaneously.

In April 2026, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) granted the first batch of stablecoin issuer licences to The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited (HSBC) and Anchorpoint Financial Limited (Anchorpoint). HSBC is one of Hong Kong’s largest banks and also holds the special status of a note-issuing bank.

In April 2026, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) issued stablecoin licenses to HSBC and Anchorpoint, signaling the imminent breakthrough of Hong Kong Dollar (HKD) stablecoin issuance. This represents a significant milestone, marking the official launch of stablecoins as a critical on-chain financial infrastructure in Hong Kong.

Do real assets protect against inflation? Stocks’ core inflation betas are negative, while their energy betas are positive. Currencies, commodities, and real estate mostly hedge against energy inflation, but not core inflation. These hedging properties are reflected in the prices of inflation risks: only core inflation carries a negative risk premium, and its magnitude is consistent within and across asset classes, uniquely among macroeconomic risk factors. Energy inflation has become more procyclical and volatile since the 1990s, which helps explain the time-varying correlation between stock and bond returns. A two-sector New Keynesian asset pricing model accounts for these facts quantitatively.

On August 1, 2025, Hong Kong’s “Stablecoin Ordinance” will take effect, marking China’s gradual participation in the stablecoin market and its exploration of how to use Hong Kong, an offshore financial center, to promote the internationalization of the RMB through stablecoins. To answer this question, we need to understand, rationally and objectively, the development logic of offshore RMB stablecoins in the context of the current heightened market sentiment.

This paper studies whether investor composition affects the sovereign debt market. We construct a data set of sovereign debt holdings by foreign and domestic bank, nonbank private and official investors for 101 countries across three decades. Compared with other investors, private nonbank investors absorb a disproportionate share of the debt supply, and their demand for emerging market debt is most price responsive. A counterfactual analysis of emerging market sovereigns shows a 10% increase in debt leads to a 5.8% yield increase but an outsized 8.4% increase without nonbank investors. We conclude that sovereigns are vulnerable to the loss of nonbanks.

自1983年起，香港一直實施與美元掛的聯繫匯率制度（聯匯制度）。在這40年間，制度運行穩定，順利應對了多次重大挑戰，如1997至1998年的亞洲金融危機和2007至2008年的全球金融危機等。值此制度40周年之際，本文將探討在新的國際經濟形勢下聯匯制度的現狀與發展。基於最新國際經濟學研究成果，通過量化指標，分析不同匯率制度對香港的利弊。