Hong Kong Monetary Authority – The HKMA hosts its flagship Regtech event – “Unlocking the Power of Regtech”

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) successfully hosted its flagship Regtech conference “Unlocking the Power of Regtech” today (30 June 2021). The virtual event was attended by over 4,000 participants with strong interest in Regtech.

Mr Eddie Yue, Chief Executive of the HKMA, said, “Regtech constitutes an integral and important driver of the HKMA’s ‘Fintech 2025’ strategy. Our goal is to make Hong Kong a leading hub for developing Regtech solutions and cultivating Regtech talents.”

The event brought together senior representatives from the global Regtech ecosystem including financial institutions, regulators, Regtech providers, and other industry experts. They shared their experience and insights into the enormous potential of Regtech during the conference.

Mr Arthur Yuen, Deputy Chief Executive of the HKMA, rounded up the conference by highlighting the key takeaways from other speakers, including:

• Mr Yifei Fan, Deputy Governor, People’s Bank of China, who emphasised Regtech’s key role in promoting deep integration between digital technologies and financial services, thereby strengthening the capability of finance to benefit individual consumers and corporates.
• Mr Benoît Cœuré, Head, BIS Innovation Hub, who underscored the importance for central banks to move in tandem with banks’ adoption of technologies and suggested ways on how central banks and banks can overcome key Regtech adoption obstacles (3Ts) – technology, training and transformation.
• Mr David Bailey, Executive Director, International Banks Supervision, Bank of England, who explained the criticality of data for Regtech adoption and shared his experience of how banks could promote data quality and governance, and building customers’ trust.
• Ms Jane Fraser, CEO, Citi, who emphasised proper risk management in the use of new technologies and the essential role played by sandboxes to facilitate the development of Regtech solutions.
• Ms Jessica Tan, Co-CEO, Ping An Group, who shared that collaboration among different stakeholders in the ecosystem is crucial to bridge any potential gaps facing banks around technical capability, people and skills.

The winners of the HKMA’s Global Regtech Challenge were announced during the conference. The results are set out in the Annex.

The HKMA also published today Hong Kong’s inaugural Regtech Adoption Index (RAI), compiled based on a comprehensive analysis of the Regtech adoption status in the Hong Kong banking industry. 56% of surveyed banks are using Regtech in at least two of the six identified regulatory themes as defined in the HKMA’s White Paper entitled “Transforming Risk Management and Compliance: Harnessing the Power of Regtech”. The results of the first RAI indicated that the majority of banks in Hong Kong had embarked on their Regtech journeys, and there were enormous opportunities for growth and collaboration within the Regtech ecosystem.

Riding on the success of this conference and the Global Regtech Challenge, the HKMA will continue to promote Regtech adoption in the Hong Kong banking industry. As laid out in the two-year roadmap published in November 2020, a series of initiatives including the publication of a Regtech Adoption Practice Guide series, the formulation of a Regtech skills framework, and the development of a Regtech knowledge hub will be rolled out in the year ahead. 

Hong Kong Monetary Authority
30 June 2021

Mr Eddie Yue, Chief Executive of the HKMA delivers welcoming remarks at the HKMA’s “Unlocking the Power of Regtech” event.

Mr Eddie Yue, Chief Executive of the HKMA (top left) moderates the session “A Global Lens – Regtech 2025: Vision of the Future”. Other speakers include, Mr Yifei Fan, Deputy Governor, People’s Bank of China (top centre); Mr Benoît Cœuré; Head, BIS Innovation Hub (top right); Mr David Bailey, Executive Director, International Banks Supervision, Bank of England (bottom left); Ms Jane Fraser, CEO, Citi (bottom centre) and Ms Jessica Tan, Co-CEO, Ping An Group (bottom right).

Mr Arthur Yuen, Deputy Chief Executive of the HKMA, shares his key takeaways from the event in his closing remarks.