Token and payment system development in Hong Kong and Saudi Arabia

Even though they issued a warning about how Bitcoin is “not recognised by legal entities” in 2019, the Saudi Central Bank hasn’t spoken anything more about cryptocurrencies since then.

Tokenization and payments infrastructure agreements are two areas where Hong Kong and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia want to deepen their financial partnership.

The Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) met on July 26 to discuss ways to further integrate their respective financial sectors.

Agenda items for the HKMA and SAMA conference included discussions of sustainable development, market interconnection, open market operations, and financial infrastructure development.

In addition, tokenization, payment infrastructure, and monitoring technologies were among the topics discussed, as said in a joint statement released by Hong Kong and Saudi Arabian officials.

“There is a lot of room for cooperation between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Hong Kong,” said Eddie Yue, chief executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority.

The governor of SAMA, Ayman Alsayari, said that the MoU would benefit both Hong Kong and Saudi Arabia “in the future.”

Despite the HKMA’s recent liberalisation of crypto trading for ordinary investors, it is unclear from the statement whether or not this would include any collaborative activities including cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. However, Saudi Arabia’s government has been relatively quiet about its ambitions to support cryptocurrency in recent years, beyond a 2019 warning that Bitcoin is “not recognised by legal entities” in the kingdom.

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