Chen Maobo: FPS will cooperate with UnionPay to further facilitate cross-border transactions

The Zhitong Finance App learned that Hong Kong's Financial Secretary Chan Mao-po said in his speech at Hong Kong Fintech Week that Hong Kong will focus on efficiency, inclusiveness and trust to promote the transformation of fintech into benefits for the real economy. The number of Fast FPS (FPS) registrations has exceeded 22 million, and the average daily transaction volume of HKD payments reached HK$16.2 billion last year. After connecting to the mainland and Thai payment systems, TransPay will cooperate with UnionPay to support QR code payments for more than 100 million merchants in Hong Kong, the Mainland and more than 40 overseas markets to further facilitate cross-border transactions.

Chen Maobo pointed out that the key to improving efficiency is connecting to the financial system, not simply speeding up the operation of individual systems. Payment network connectivity allows citizens to use familiar payment tools to spend in more regions, and merchants can also receive cross-border payments more easily; while the connection between tokenized assets and digital currencies helps improve transaction and settlement efficiency. The world's unmet need for trade finance amounts to $2.5 trillion. Hong Kong is using commercial data to help SMEs overcome the problem of insufficient collateral. Among them, since its launch in 2022, “Business Data Connect” has facilitated more than 125,000 SME loan applications and approvals, involving a credit amount of nearly HK$110 billion.

Chen Maobo said that efficiency and inclusiveness are based on trust. Currently, liquidity in the secondary market for tokenized assets has yet to be established, and large-scale applications of stablecoins are still being tested. He stressed that fintech should not stop at pilot projects, but should actually help enterprises collect, finance and pay overseas suppliers more quickly and reliably. The Hong Kong Government will provide a clear regulatory framework and reliable infrastructure to promote the implementation of more fintech applications in Hong Kong to benefit enterprises and citizens.