The Hong Kong Securities Analysts Association advocates for the "Budget" to deepen the development and innovation of the bond market and expand the offshore RMB business ecosystem

The Hong Kong Society of Financial Analysts has made recommendations regarding the 2026/2027 Fiscal Budget, suggesting that deepening measures should be taken in six key areas, including enhancing the competitiveness and liquidity of the capital market, deepening the development and innovation of the bond market, expanding the offshore RMB business ecosystem, consolidating the position of asset and wealth management centers, embracing financial technology and virtual assets, and strengthening cross-border connectivity and regional cooperation.

In terms of enhancing the competitiveness and liquidity of the capital market, the Society recommends providing clearer tax guidelines to attract high-quality overseas listed companies to Hong Kong for secondary or dual listings; while promoting reforms such as T+1 settlement, it suggests researching a more competitive trading cost structure. For example, a pilot program for targeted stamp duty exemptions could be considered for transactions handled by Group C brokers (whose market transaction volume accounts for about 3.55%); it could also explore implementing targeted preferential tax rates on stamp duty for trading dual-listed stocks to stimulate trading activity of such stocks.

Regarding deepening the development and innovation of the bond market, the Society suggests promoting deeper market development based on issuing bonds to support infrastructure projects in the Northern Metropolis, including enriching the bond product line. While increasing the issuance of government bonds, it should significantly raise the proportion of medium- and long-term bonds to match the long-cycle demand of infrastructure projects and provide quality assets for long-term investors such as insurance and pension funds, thereby improving the HKD and RMB yield curves; transitioning the issuance of tokenized bonds from a pilot to a normalized mechanism and researching the tokenization of already issued traditional bonds. At the same time, it should clarify the legal and regulatory framework for digital bonds in terms of issuance, trading, and custody as soon as possible to consolidate Hong Kong's leading position in the application of financial technology.

In expanding the offshore RMB business ecosystem, the Society states that efforts should focus on ecological construction based on the technical preparations for including RMB counters in the Hong Kong Stock Connect, including fully promoting the implementation of the RMB counter for the Hong Kong Stock Connect and simultaneously implementing arrangements for paying relevant stock stamp duties in RMB. At the same time, it encourages the use of the new RMB trade financing liquidity arrangement launched by the Monetary Authority to promote more use of RMB in trade, significantly enhancing the liquidity and attractiveness of the offshore RMB stock market.

The Society also pointed out that to attract global capital, the tax environment should be optimized, such as expediting the introduction and implementation of tax incentive plans for funds, single-family offices, and associated rights, including broadening the definition of "funds" and increasing the types of eligible transactions to ensure that policies are internationally competitive; leveraging the effectiveness of the "Capital Investor Entry Scheme," based on the large number of applications already received, the investment portfolio scope and flexibility of the scheme could be further optimized and more closely integrated with Hong Kong's financial market products (such as bonds, real estate investment trusts) to continuously attract high-net-worth individuals and their capital to settle in Hong Kong.

In embracing financial technology and virtual assets, the Society recommends expediting the completion of the licensing system consultation and legislation for virtual asset over-the-counter trading services and custody services, and cautiously advancing the regulatory system for stablecoin issuers to provide clear guidelines for compliant enterprises; encouraging the exploration of applying technologies such as blockchain to the tokenized issuance, trading, and custody of traditional financial assets (such as bonds, fund shares) to enhance efficiency and create new products, promoting financial innovation The association also believes that deepening connections with the mainland and international markets is crucial, including expanding "mutual access," actively promoting the inclusion of Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs) in mutual access targets, and exploring the expansion of the range of investable products under the "Cross-Border Wealth Management Connect" to introduce incremental funds into both markets. Actively implement the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (00388.HK) promotion cooperation in ASEAN and the Middle East, and support the establishment of more overseas economic and trade offices in Hong Kong. At the same time, develop supply chain finance to support enterprises in utilizing the Hong Kong platform for cross-border treasury management to capture financial opportunities in the global supply chain restructuring