Hong Kong

  • Hong Kong-Slovenia Double Tax Agreement: Lower Withholding

    Hong Kong signed a double taxation agreement with Slovenia on 4 September 2026. The Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Christopher Hui, signed for Hong Kong; Slovenia’s Ambassador to China signed for the other side. The Hong Kong-Slovenia double taxation agreement is the 60th tax treaty in Hong Kong’s network and the fifth the…

  • e-HKD Pilot Programme Ends: HKMA’s Wholesale Pivot for Banks

    On 28 October 2025 the Hong Kong Monetary Authority published the e-HKD Pilot Programme Phase 2 Report and, with it, drew a line under three years of retail testing. The report sets out the HKMA’s latest policy stance on Hong Kong’s central bank digital currency: the immediate priority for the e-HKD sits in wholesale settlement…

  • Hong Kong Carried Interest Tax Concession: Beyond Private Equity

    On 12 August 2026, Hong Kong’s Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau (FSTB) answered media enquiries about the preferential tax regime for carried interest and used the reply to draw a boundary. Under the current Schedule 16D, the 0 per cent profits tax concession applies to eligible carried interest received by a qualifying person from…

  • HKMA D-SIB Designation 2025: Five Banks, HLA Buckets Unchanged

    On 31 December 2025 the Hong Kong Monetary Authority completed its annual assessment and confirmed the list of authorized institutions designated as domestic systemically important banks. The HKMA D-SIB designation for 2026 names the same five institutions as a year earlier, and it leaves their Higher Loss Absorbency (HLA) requirements at the levels each already…

  • HKMA FPS Enhancement: The 9 August 2026 Outage Window

    On Sunday 9 August 2026, Hong Kong’s Faster Payment System (FPS) is scheduled to suspend all real-time services for ten hours. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) confirmed on 3 August 2026 that the FPS will be unavailable from 1:00 am to 11:00 am Hong Kong time while Hong Kong Interbank Clearing Limited (HKICL), the…

  • Hong Kong OTC Clearing Rules: Standard Calculation Periods From 2027

    On 29 January 2026 the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) and the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) issued a joint consultation on a small but consequential part of the Hong Kong OTC clearing rules: the calculation periods that decide when a firm is caught by the mandatory clearing obligation. The regulators proposed to stop adding…

  • HKMA Banking Ordinance Enhancements: Bank Holding Companies in Scope

    On 13 February 2026 the Hong Kong Monetary Authority published consultation conclusions on proposed enhancements to the Banking Ordinance (Cap. 155). The policy package has since moved into legislation: the Banking Legislation (Miscellaneous Amendments) Bill 2026 was gazetted on 5 June 2026, received its First Reading on 17 June 2026 and has since been referred…