City Hong Kong Financial News

Changpeng Zhao, CEO of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume Binance, said that Singapore’s approach to digital assets has become more “conservative,” particularly after the spectacular collapse of the now-defunct FTX exchange.

The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) has issued a solid warning to unregistered crypto exchange JPEX that it may face criminal charges for actively promoting its services to the Hong Kong public through influencers and over-the-counter virtual asset money changers.

By Donny Kwok and Brenda Goh

National Australia Bank will shut down its office in Hong Kong after deciding that Shanghai, Singapore and Tokyo are the preferred regional centres to support its institutional banking clients in Asia.

Institutional adoption of digital assets in Asia is gaining momentum as regulatory clarity improves in the region. 

A collaboration between the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) and the central banks of Hong Kong and Israel has demonstrated that central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) can settle on centralized ledgers without compromising privacy.

The Bank for International Settlements and the central banks of Hong Kong and Israel released the results of Project Sela on Sept. 12. The project was a public-private partnership that used private intermediaries to create a retail central bank digital currency (rCBDC) combining the desirable characteristics of cash and the advantages of digitalization.

Crypto exchange Bitget has grown significantly despite the challenges brought by the bear market. In 2023, the exchange announced two $100-million funds — one dedicated to crypto projects in Asia and another for maximizing the company’s long-term impact in the crypto space.

Project Sela leaned on the Bank of Israel's cyber security expertise and ongoing work on the digital shekel and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority's (HKMA) learnings from Project Aurum and e-Hong Kong Dollar. In Sela, the rCBDC ledger is operated by the central bank without compromising end user privacy as personal identifiers are obfuscated.

SHANGHAI/BEIJING (Reuters) -China's largest private property developer Country Garden won approval from its creditors to extend repayments on six onshore bonds by three years, two sources familiar with the matter said on Tuesday, sending shares up as much as 10%.

The former CEO of Alibaba has resigned as head of its cloud computing business in a surprise move as the Chinese e-commerce empire wraps up a leadership reshuffle

Vedanta Resources Limited, the holding company of the mining conglomerate, Monday discussed the potential tenure extension of the bonds due in 2024 and 2025 by three years to 2027 through a partial exchange as part of the liability management exercise in meetings held with investors in Hong Kong. VRL's proposal to extend the maturity of the shorter-term bonds by three years, however, has irked some investors, as it means that bonds maturing in 2026 will be redeemed before the 2024 and 2025 bonds. ET earlier this month had reported that VRL hired Morrow Sodali's services to identify holders of its $1 billion bonds maturing in January 2024, another $1 billion set to mature in August 2024, and a $1.2 billion bond due in 2025. A Vedanta spokesperson said: “The Vedanta team is travelling to Singapore and Hong Kong to meet existing bondholders. These meetings are being organised by JP Morgan and Standard Chartered. These are purely non-deal roadshows to meet and greet our existing investors.” During meetings, the company management also disclosed that, as part of its liability management exercise (LME), it would have limited cash available. It plans to pay $200 million to Trafigura to free up the security and use it to raise funds by securitising brand fee. In June, VRL had raised $200 million from commodities trading company Trafigura Group to meet some debt repayments. VRL's total aggregated holdco debt is $5.9 billion at the end of June 2023 of which $ 3.7 billion is bonds. VRL is in discussions with lenders to borrow $ 1.3 billion loan from banks against the three year brand fee, as reported. It also plans to prepay a $350 million loan from Oaktree Capital Management.

Investing.com — Shares of Alibaba Group (HK:9988) (NYSE:BABA) slumped in Hong Kong trade on Monday after the e-commerce giant said that outgoing chief executive Daniel Zhang will also step down as the head of its cloud unit.

UBS Group AG is cutting hundreds of wealth jobs in Asia just months after completing its takeover of rival Credit Suisse as the bank responds to muted client activity and China’s slowing economy. Switzerland’s largest bank reduced some overlapping roles in the past months and further cuts are expected through November, according to people with knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be identified as the plans are private. The lender is set to eliminate a few hundred roles that include relationship managers in Hong Kong and Singapore, the majority within teams newly acquired from Credit Suisse, the people said. The number of cuts hasn’t been finalized, they said.

Ant Group, the owner of the world’s largest mobile payment platform, Alipay, revealed its new sub-brand under the name ZAN. The brand will focus on blockchain development and services for both institutional and individual Web3 developers. 

stock exchange delayed trading in both the securities and derivatives markets on Friday morning due to a black rainstorm warning. The warning means that heavy rain has fallen or is expected to fall generally over Hong Kong, exceeding 70 millimetres in an hour, and is likely to continue, according to the Hong Kong Observatory. According to the exchange's arrangement, the morning trading session will be suspended if the black rainstorm warning remains in place at 9 a.m.

rain deluged Hong Kong on Friday leading to widespread flooding across the densely packed city, submerging streets, shopping malls and metro stations, as authorities shut schools and asked workers to stay at home. The Chinese special administrative region saw the highest hourly rainfall since records began 140 years ago.Hong Kong Observatory reported rainfall of 158.1 millimetres (6.2 inches) between 11 p.m. HKT on Thursday and midnight on Friday (1500 to 1600 GMT on Thursday). The weather bureau issued the highest «black» rainstorm warning and said more than 200 mm of rainfall was recorded on Hong Kong's main island, Kowloon and the northeastern part of the city's New Territories since Thursday night. The trough of low pressure associated with the remnant of Typhoon Haikui has brought torrential rain to the coast of Guangdong since Thursday, the weather bureau said.

Web3 startups often face challenges unique to the nascent ecosystem — complex regulatory landscapes and scaling with decentralization are just two of many. Venture capital flowing into Web3 startups experienced a big drop over the last year, and new projects need more help than ever to carry their work throughout the early phases.

China is planning to showcase its digital yuan to the ASEAN nations, and could seek to make “cross-regional use” of its CBDC in the bloc.

Investing.com-- Hong Kong Exchange and Clearing Ltd (HK:0388), the operator of the city’s stock exchange, said on Friday that morning trade in the securities and derivatives market was delayed after the city issued a “Black Rainstorm” warning in the face of torrential rainfall and severe flooding.  

Nifty settled higher for the fifth consecutive session on Thursday, September 7, supported by gains in select heavyweights, including Larsen & Toubro, HDFC Bank, and ICICI Bank, even as global cues were weak amid concerns over higher interest rates for an extended period. In Asian markets, Seoul, Tokyo, Shanghai and Hong Kong ended lower. European markets were trading in the green in early deals.