Standard Chartered CEO praises Hong Kong on virtual-asset trading moves, calls on city to ‘scrap’ all travel curbs
- CEO Bill Winters says the bank will look seriously at virtual-asset trading for retail customers following last week’s announcement of government support
- ‘Scrap the whole thing,’ Winters says about Hong Kong’s remaining travel restrictions, urging ‘No tests on arrival, no tests on departure’
Standard Chartered plans to take an active role in the development of virtual-asset trading in Hong Kong by introducing products and services with appropriate safety nets for investors, according to CEO Bill Winters. The bank’s leader also called on the city to scrap its travel rules.
The measures include a new licensing regime for virtual-asset providers, tokenisation of green bonds and allowing retail investors to trade cryptocurrencies, as well as the introduction of the e-HKD.
“It’s fantastic that the Hong Kong Monetary Authority [HKMA] is effectively consulting on this,” he said. “It’s not straightforward. But my view is that digital assets of all descriptions are a part of the financial system. They’re not going to go away.”
Besides cryptocurrencies, a broad range of other digital assets, such as stablecoins, central bank digital currencies, tokenised real assets and others provide a lot of business opportunities for Hong Kong, Winters said. Standard Chartered would look “very, very seriously” at introducing products and services relating to virtual assets for Hong Kong retail customers, he said.
