Financial Secretary Paul Chan today pledged to enhance Hong Kong’s role as an international financial centre, while contributing to “accelerating China’s development as a financial powerhouse.”

Delivering his 2026-27 Budget, the finance chief said the Government will aim to consolidate Hong Kong’s existing strengths, tap into emerging fields, strengthen market systems and risk control, and deepen financial co-operation across the Greater Bay Area.

With regard to advancing renminbi (RMB) internationalisation, Mr Chan highlighted that Hong Kong doubled the size of the RMB Business Facility to RMB200 billion earlier this month to support the wider use of RMB by enterprises and customers.

He said the Government will promote more convenient exchange quotations and transactions to reduce transaction costs, seek to attract more high-quality RMB issuers, and explore the formation of an offshore RMB yield curve.It will also strive to expedite the issuance of Mainland government bond futures in Hong Kong, the inclusion of real estate investment trusts (REITs) under mutual access arrangements and the provision of an RMB trading counter under the Southbound Stock Connect. 

In terms of securities, Mr Chan said Hong Kong Exchanges & Clearing will consult the market on revisions to listing requirements for enterprises with weighted voting right structures, facilitating secondary listing of overseas issuers, and greater listing flexibility for biotechnology and specialist technology companies. It will also put forward proposals for T+1 settlement cycles and launch the uncertificated securities market regime in collaboration with the industry and the Securities & Futures Commission (SFC).

Moreover, the Government will introduce an enhanced regulatory regime for listed companies, providing specific guidelines for overseas companies seeking secondary listings in Hong Kong.

The financial secretary also mentioned that the SFC and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority are in the process of implementing the Roadmap for the Development of Fixed Income and Currency Markets and that an electronic bond-trading platform will be launched in the second half of this year.

In the area of asset and wealth management, Mr Chan said the Government will introduce legislation to enhance the tax regime with a view to attracting more family offices and funds. It will also enable the privatisation or restructuring of REITs, and amend the law to provide a stamp duty waiver for the transfer of non-residential properties into REITs seeking to list. 

New horizons

Mr Chan highlighted work in various emerging sectors, including efforts to strengthen Hong Kong as a base for the establishment of Corporate Treasury Centres (CTCs). The Government will announce measure providing additional tax incentives and flexibility for CTCs. It also proposes to relax the criteria for stamp duty relief in relation to the intra group transfer of assets, and will introduce legislation whereby the new arrangements will apply retrospectively to instruments signed from today onwards.

The finance chief also outlined that the Government will introduce a bill this year to establish licensing regimes for digital asset dealing and custodianship service providers, while the first batch of licences under the licensing regime for fiat-referenced stablecoin issuers will be issued next month. The SFC will set up an accelerator to expedite market innovation in the digital asset market.

In the coming two years, the Government will amend the Inland Revenue Ordinance to implement the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework and its amended Common Reporting Standard.

Mr Chan outlined that the Government will continue to develop Hong Kong as an international gold trading market by exploring tax incentives for eligible institutions conducting gold trading and settlement in the city, and facilitating the establishment of an industry-led trade association.