Hong Kong Securities Regulatory Commission: Plans to further enrich the types of products under the "Cross-boundary Wealth Management Connect" mechanism to promote the high-level opening of China's financial market to the outside world.

The Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong released a statement on its official website, stating that in order to further promote the coordinated development of the Mainland and Hong Kong financial derivatives markets and to promote high-level financial opening to the outside world, the People's Bank of China, the Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong, and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority plan to further enrich the types of products under the "Bond Connect" program based on a full summary of the experience of the "Bond Connect" operation and carefully listening to the opinions and suggestions of investors at home and abroad. Firstly, they will extend the contract period, extending the term of interest rate swap contracts to 30 years to meet the diversified risk management needs of market institutions; secondly, they will expand the product range by introducing interest rate swap contracts with the loan market quoted rate (LPR) as the reference rate. The basic infrastructure institutions of the two markets will successively launch the above optimization measures. The Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong mentioned that in order to implement the national strategic deployment of steadily promoting the opening of China's financial markets to the outside world, the Mainland and Hong Kong interest rate swap market mutual access cooperation (referred to as "Bond Connect") was officially launched on May 15. Since the launch of the business, the volume of "Bond Connect" transactions has continued to increase. By May 2024, the mechanism of "Bond Connect" will be further optimized to facilitate overseas institutions in managing RMB interest rate risks and enhance the willingness of overseas investors to allocate RMB assets. As of the end of April 2025, 20 domestic quoting dealers and 79 overseas investors have reached over 12,000 RMB interest rate swap transactions, with a total nominal principal of approximately RMB 65 trillion. Next, the financial and securities regulatory authorities in Mainland China and Hong Kong will continue to guide the basic infrastructure institutions of the financial markets in both places, continuously improve the relevant mechanism arrangements based on the operation of "Bond Connect," steadily promote further opening of the Chinese financial market to the outside world, prudently and solidly promote the internationalization of the RMB, and support the prosperous development of Hong Kong as an international financial center.