Source: New Beijing News

On June 8th, Yu Weiwen, the Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), stated in an interview with mainland media that financial stability is the most important thing for Hong Kong. Without stability, it is difficult to develop. The HKMA has basically adhered to the principle of seeking progress through stability. On the basis of stability, the financial market in Hong Kong has developed very rapidly and actively in the past year.

Yu Weiwen responded to the recent closely watched issue of mainland investors opening accounts in Hong Kong banks. He stated that as an international financial center, Hong Kong will not allow or tolerate any illegal financial activities. Standardizing the behavior of mainland investors opening accounts in Hong Kong banks will be more beneficial and able to consolidate Hong Kong's position as an international financial center.

The Hong Kong Exchange Fund achieved a return rate of 8% last year, showcasing its diversified investment prowess

At present, the scale of Hong Kong's foreign exchange reserves is huge. As of the end of May 2026, the official foreign exchange reserve assets of Hong Kong are $446.5 billion, which is more than five times the circulating currency of Hong Kong, or about 38% of the Hong Kong dollar money supply M3.

In 2025, the Hong Kong Exchange Fund managed by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority achieved decent income. At that time, the Hong Kong Exchange Fund recorded investment income of HKD 337.4 billion, during which stocks, bonds, and the "long-term growth portfolio" all achieved positive returns, making it the "most profitable year in history", with an overall investment return rate of 8%. Meanwhile, it is relatively rare for all major components of the foreign exchange fund to achieve positive returns simultaneously, with only occurrences in 2017 and 2020 over the past 15 years.
Regarding the performance of the Hong Kong Exchange Fund last year, he previously stated that in the face of a complex and ever-changing investment environment, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority will continue to adhere to the principle of "capital preservation first, long-term appreciation", and manage the Exchange Fund in a prudent and flexible manner; We will adopt appropriate defensive allocation, maintain high liquidity, and continue to promote investment diversification, focusing on enhancing the long-term returns of the foreign exchange fund.

In the interview that day, Yu Weiwen repeatedly emphasized the importance of diversified investment, believing that the trend of global investment diversification will continue, and Hong Kong, as an international financial center, will further benefit from it.

He revealed that since the beginning of last year, influenced by the trend of diversified investment, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority has seen an increasing number of investors from different regions such as the Middle East, ASEAN, Europe and America entering the Hong Kong financial market.
Internationalization of RMB may enter a new stage, expanding development channels with mainland China
In the past few years, Hong Kong has built a relatively complete financial infrastructure around the internationalization of the renminbi. Offshore RMB can be used for cross-border trade settlement, deposits, loans, Dim sum bonds, foreign exchange transactions, Bond Connect and repurchase transactions.
According to the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, the offshore RMB liquidity pool in Hong Kong is approximately RMB 1 trillion, and over 70% of offshore RMB payments worldwide continue to be processed through Hong Kong. In February of this year, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority expanded the scale of RMB business funding arrangements from RMB 100 billion to RMB 200 billion.
Yu Weiwen pointed out that since the total quota doubled to 200 billion yuan, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority has received applications from participating banks whose quota is almost exhausted to increase their quota, and some banks that did not participate before have also applied to the Hong Kong Monetary Authority.

He stated that for the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, in the coming years, it will expand some development channels related to the mainland, including increasing the scope of interconnectivity. Some international investors hope to increase the diversification of asset allocation, and one important way is to invest in mainland China or related markets through Hong Kong. Therefore, in the coming years, northbound capital flows in the stock and bond markets may increase further.

If international funds want to invest in the mainland market through Hong Kong, Hong Kong will do a good job in matching these capital flows, such as enriching hedging or risk management tools in the Hong Kong financial market, as well as treasury bond bonds, stocks, futures and other investment varieties.
I think interconnectivity will definitely be a big highlight for Hong Kong as an international financial center in the future, "Yu Weiwen said. Hong Kong is an important bridge connecting the mainland and the world in finance. Hong Kong's unique advantage is that it is not only a part of China, but also familiar to international investors with Hong Kong's market environment and rules.

Yu Weiwen believes that there is still a lot of room for expansion in the future interconnection between mainland China and Hong Kong. At present, many mainland enterprises are going global and using Hong Kong as their global financial management center. In the coming years, Hong Kong will continue to make efforts in promoting the internationalization of the renminbi, with an important aspect being the increase of offshore renminbi liquidity.

Consolidate the advantages of an international financial center and seize the future of digital finance with technology
As an international financial center, Hong Kong maintains an innovative pace in the field of financial technology. Over the past year, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority has successively launched multiple heavyweight measures, including the "FinTech 2030" strategy and the Ensemble project entering the trial phase.

Yu Weiwen told reporters that the Hong Kong Monetary Authority is taking the Ensemble project as its core and adopting a gradual strategy to promote the development of Hong Kong's tokenization ecosystem. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority officially launched Ensemble TX in November last year, and the project has entered the trial phase to support real trading of tokenized deposits and digital assets in a controlled trial environment.

The trial environment of Ensemble TX will gradually be upgraded and optimized, such as supporting tokenization of central bank currency for 24/7 settlement, to promote the sustainable development of Hong Kong's tokenization ecosystem. At the same time, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority is actively promoting the implementation of local standards to provide clearer development directions for the industry.

In terms of cooperation with mainland China, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, Shanghai Data Bureau, and National Blockchain Technology Innovation Center have jointly signed the Memorandum of Understanding on Digitalization Cooperation in Shanghai Hong Kong Freight Trade and Finance. Through the Ensemble project, cross-border financial cooperation will be carried out to study how to apply electronic bills of lading to promote trade financing between the two places through freight and trade data.

The Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenA. I.) Sandbox is another innovative project launched by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. Generative artificial sandboxes can provide banks with a risk controlled testing environment, pilot innovative artificial intelligence applications, and receive technical support from the Cyberport's AI Supercomputing Center. The first two phases of the sandbox program are assisting over 20 banks and 15 technology partners in exploring more than 40 use cases and driving responsible innovation.

In March of this year, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and multiple regulatory agencies announced the launch of the expanded GenA.I. sandbox++to cover multiple financial sectors, including banking, securities and capital markets, asset and wealth management, insurance, mandatory provident fund, and stored value payment instruments. Hong Kong banks mainly apply GenA. I. to improve customer experience and personalize services, risk management, as well as anti fraud and deepfake defense.

New Beijing News Shell Finance Reporter Zhang Xiaochong