The government of Hong Kong announced the successful offering of HK$800 million of tokenised green bond under the Government Green Bond Programme. This is the first tokenised green bond issued by a government globally.
The green bond was distributed by four banks, Bank of China (Hong Kong), HSBC, Crédit Agricole CIB, and Goldman Sachs, and the first two also act as investor custodians. The Central Moneymarkets Unit (CMU) of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority is the clearing and settlement system for the bond, leveraging Goldman Sachs' tokenisation platform GS DAPTM.
Mr Paul Chan, the Financial Secretary, said, "Hong Kong has been proactively promoting the application of innovative technologies in the financial field, and is actively exploring new concepts and technologies to enhance the efficiency, transparency and security of financial transactions. Our Policy Statement on Development of Virtual Assets in Hong Kong issued in October last year sets out that we actively embrace financial innovations related to Web3 and promote steady and prudent market development. The successful issuance of this tokenised green bond marks an important milestone as it demonstrates Hong Kong's strengths in combining bond market, green and sustainable finance as well as fintech. The HKSAR Government will continue to promote the innovative development of the financial market."
Policy and Regulation
