Hong Kong’s real-time transfer service platform, the Faster Payment System (FPS), will link with UnionPay International by the end of this year, broadening its cross-border payment capabilities and making it easier for users to pay merchants in more than 40 overseas markets, the city’s monetary authority said on Monday.
Speaking at a news conference on the sidelines of Hong Kong FinTech Week x StartmeupHK 2026, Eddie Yue Wai-man, chief executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), announced a series of initiatives to boost the city’s fintech capabilities. UnionPay International is a global business-focused subsidiary of China UnionPay, the nation’s primary bankcard association and payment network.
He said the FPS will gradually support payments at over 100 million merchants affiliated with UnionPay and its partner networks across the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the Chinese mainland and more than 40 overseas markets. Users will be able to make retail payments in those markets by scanning QR codes, facilitating local and overseas spending and enhancing cross-border financial connectivity.
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“Regions expected to be in the first batch to support FPS payments will likely include the Hong Kong SAR, the mainland, Malaysia, and other neighboring areas,” said Howard Lee Tat-chi, deputy chief executive of the HKMA.
In addition to facilitating cross-border payments, the HKMA will launch Project SAGE, which stands for “securing agentic finance with governance and enablement”, to advance the practical application of agentic finance within a robust governance framework.
Agentic finance refers to the use of AI agents that assist or replace humans in making and executing financial decisions autonomously. For example, an AI agent could analyze a consumer’s shopping list, compare prices across vendors, select products, and complete the settlement via a payment network.
Addressing potential risks associated with AI agents, such as “how to verify an AI agent’s identity and determine liability when a transaction goes wrong”, Alvin Li Hao-yang, a division head of the Banking Supervision Department at the HKMA, said Project SAGE is specifically designed to promote the secure and responsible development of agentic finance.
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Furthermore, through its Project Ensemble, the HKMA will also enable around-the-clock real-value transactions for tokenized deposits, overcoming the operating-hour limits of traditional banks and allowing for timely fund allocation.
Meanwhile, to bolster financial security, the HKMA, alongside the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and industry partners, has launched a post-quantum cryptography toolkit to defend against potential quantum-computing threats to current encryption mechanisms.
“Hong Kong is well placed to capitalize on new growth opportunities in fintech. Building on the good progress that we have made under Fintech 2030, banks and fintech firms can better harness data, AI, tokenization and other emerging technologies,” Yue said. He added that Hong Kong will continue to foster an enabling environment and support the sustainable development of its fintech ecosystem.
Contact the writer at akirawang@chinadailyhk.com
