The HKMA, PBoC and SFC jointly unveiled a host of initiatives on 7 July to deepen cross-border financial cooperation between Hong Kong and the Mainland, foster Hong Kong’s fixed income and currency (FIC) market and offshore RMB business, and cement Hong Kong’s status as an international financial centre. The FIC-related measures cover six areas: developing a Hong Kong electronic FIC trading platform through cross-border financial infrastructure collaboration, upgrading and expanding Southbound Bond Connect by lifting its annual investment quota, launching repo transactions collateralised via Southbound Bond Connect bonds, broadening product coverage to instruments anchored in HKD and RMB bonds, linking up with Macao’s bond market and refining market maker governance, admitting Mainland Treasury and policy bank bonds held under Northbound Bond Connect as eligible margin collateral for HKFE Clearing and SEHK Options Clearing House, extending Northbound Bond Connect’s settlement hours to boost operational efficiency, adding the FDR007 benchmark rate to Swap Connect, and supporting HKEX’s launch of 5-Year China Government Bond Futures on 3 August. Backed by the PBoC, the HKMA also released five policies to grow the offshore RMB market and entrench Hong Kong as a premier offshore RMB hub, responding to industry feedback: raising the ceiling of the HKMA’s RMB Business Facility from RMB 200 billion to RMB 500 billion with new 9-month, 2-year and 3-year tenors effective 10 July 2026, exploring a tender mechanism for 7-day offshore RMB liquidity, studying offshore RMB short-term debt instruments to build a sound offshore RMB yield curve, advancing a bilateral trading framework for Indonesian Rupiah and offshore RMB, and issuing industry guidance to banks to boost RMB usage. HKMA Chief Executive Eddie Yue remarked that these coordinated measures advance cross-border financial connectivity, develop Hong Kong’s FIC sector and reinforce its dual roles as an offshore RMB hub and international financial centre. The regulators will coordinate with industry participants and financial infrastructure providers to roll out the policies smoothly and explore further improvements in due course.
Source: https://www.hkma.gov.hk/eng/news-and-media/press-releases/2026/07/20260707-3/