Asia Financial Regulatory Bulletin - October 2026

This month, regulators in Hong Kong and Singapore pressed ahead with initiatives spanning tokenisation and digital assets, cross-border payments and prudential reform. Hong Kong advanced RMB settlement cooperation and took enforcement action over suspected market misconduct, while MAS consulted on corporate governance changes and a new stablecoin regime.

This monthly bulletin provides a snapshot of the most important regulatory changes in Singapore and Hong Kong.

Key developments

Hong Kong SAR:

• The Chief Executive announced the first Five-Year Plan for Hong Kong and the 2026 Policy Address, which detailed various initiatives to develop Hong Kong as an international financial centre. These include various tokenisation initiatives, such as a pilot for tokenisation of Exchange Fund Bills and for warehouse-receipts financing, and the establishment of a multi-asset tokenisation platform for carbon credits and commodity warehouse receipts. Preparations for T+1 settlement are ongoing, with e-HKD payments to be enabled for after-hours trading of derivatives.

Singapore:

• MAS published a consultation paper on proposed amendments to the Payment Services Act 2019 to introduce a regulatory framework for stablecoins in Singapore.

• MAS published a consultation paper proposing amendments to the corporate governance regulations applicable to locally incorporated banks, insurers and designated financial holding companies.