The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) and Bank of Thailand (BOT) has agreed on a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in an effort to progress financial innovation and further promote collaboration between the two regulatory authorities.
Under the MoU, the HKMA and BOT will now begin to collaborate on referral of innovative businesses, information and experience sharing plus joint innovation projects.
Norman Chan, Chief Executive of the HKMA said: “The HKMA and BOT are long-time partners in a number of important financial initiatives. Today I am pleased to have signed a fintech MoU with Governor Santiprabhob to take our collaboration to the next level.
“The signing of this MoU not only demonstrates our mutual interests in developing collaborative fintech initiatives, but also underlines our on-going efforts in cross-border collaboration between central banks in promoting innovation and enhancing experience sharing.
“The HKMA looks forward to working together with BOT and seeing the positive outcome from our joint effort.”
In the announcement, HKMA disclosed one potential collaboration under consideration by the two authorities.
The proposal would be a joint research project on Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), to which the two authorities may apply the knowledge and experience they gained from their respective CBDC research studies.
Veerathai Santiprabhob, Governor of BOT, echoed Chan’s thoughts on the “significant step in fintech collaboration” and he believes the two working together will ultimately lead to “productive outcomes that will benefit us all.”
He commented: “I believe there is huge potential to enhance quality of financial services by leveraging on technological advancement, and it is our responsibilities as regulators to create an ecosystem that is conducive to innovations.
“The BOT looks forward to working closely with the HKMA in turning great ideas into innovative practical solutions that will ultimately improve people’s lives.”
Collaboration to advance fintech is becoming a familiar sight after the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Asia-Pacific Future Financial Research Institute reached a similar agreement recently.
