Hong Kong Mortgage Corporation Launches Historic HK$12 Billion Inaugural Public Digital Bond Issuance, Setting Global Benchmark

HKMC's HK$12 billion inaugural public digital bond issuance

The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority:

The Hong Kong Mortgage Corporation Limited (HKMC) today (June 11) announced the successful pricing of its inaugural digital bonds totalling approximately HK$12 billion equivalent (Issuance) under its US$30 billion Medium Term Note Programme. Following a series of effective pre-marketing exercises and investor roadshows, the bonds were successfully book-built and priced in Hong Kong on June 10, 2026.

This landmark transaction marks the largest-ever digital bond issuance globally to date, underscoring the deep market liquidity and accelerating adoption by institutional investors. With the Issuance, the HKMC also becomes the first public sector entity in Hong Kong to issue digital bonds. In addition, the 5-year Hong Kong dollar (HKD) tranche represents the longest tenor ever for an HKD-denominated digital bond, setting a new benchmark in the HKD bond market.

The triple-tranche digital bond issuance comprises HK$6 billion 2-year, HK$2.5 billion 5-year and CNH 3 billon 3-year digital bonds. Building on the successful digital bond issuance mechanism adopted by the Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR Government), the Issuance was well received by a diverse group of high-quality institutional investors. These included local, Southbound Bond Connect and international institutional investors, spanning multilateral development bank, central bank, banks, private banks, insurance and asset management companies. The Issuance attracted a combined peak orderbook of around HK$24 billion equivalent from more than 100 accounts.

The digital bonds are digitally created on a distributed ledger technology platform operated by the Central Moneymarkets Unit (CMU), which also serves as the clearing and settlement system for the digital bonds.

The Issuance marks a significant milestone on the HKMC's digital finance journey. Key features include issuing the bonds in a digitally native format for greater operational efficiency, providing investors the option to access via the existing CMU infrastructure and linkage to Euroclear and Clearstream, and successfully shortening the settlement cycle from five business days to three business days.

Deputy Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and Executive Director of the HKMC Mr Howard Lee said, "By launching tokenised fixed income products and driving market innovation, the HKMC demonstrates its unwavering support for the HKSAR Government's strategic roadmap to cement Hong Kong's position as a global fixed income and currency hub. This landmark digital bond issuance helps deepen Hong Kong's digital asset ecosystem and accelerate the adoption of tokenisation technology in the fixed income market, inspiring a wider range of issuers, investors, intermediaries and other industry stakeholders to embrace this innovative financial instrument."

Executive Director and the Chief Executive Officer of the HKMC, Mr Colin Pou, said, "Through our effective pre-marketing exercises and roadshows to the investing community, the inaugural digital bonds issued by the HKMC were priced amidst strong market reception. This milestone highlights the growing participation from arranging banks and first-time digital bond investors. It reinforces Hong Kong's distinctive role in bridging traditional finance with the digital asset era. Moving forward, the HKMC will continue to leverage its strengths to further develop the local bond market."

The HKMC highly appreciates the professional advice and tremendous support from the Joint Global Coordinators, Joint Bookrunners, and Joint Lead Managers which comprised a total of 16 local and international financial institutions, in making a success of the Issuance. The full list of participating financial institutions is set out at the Annex.

Source: AI-found images

CE and Principal Officials receive seasonal influenza vaccination

The Chief Executive, Mr John Lee, led a number of Principal Officials to receive seasonal influenza vaccination (SIV) today (September 23) and called on members of the public to get vaccinated as early as possible to build an immunity barrier in the community together and better protect their health and that of their family members.

Mr Lee said, "Vaccination is one of the most effective means for preventing seasonal influenza and its complications, as well as reducing the risk of hospitalisation and death arising from influenza. I appeal to members of the public to get vaccinated as early as possible to protect themselves and their family members."

Under the vigorous promotion by the Government, and with support from all sectors of the community, more than 2.03 million doses of vaccines were administered under various SIV programmes in the previous year (2025/26), with overall coverage rates of the target population remaining similar to those of the preceding year. Among children and adolescents, the SIV rate for persons aged 6 months to under 18 years reached 64.8 per cent, which is 13.1 percentage points higher than the average for the same period over the past three seasons (51.7 per cent). The vaccination rate for adolescents aged 12 to under 18 years reached 61.4 per cent, representing a substantial increase of 22.6 percentage points compared with the average for the same period over the past three seasons (38.8 per cent).

The Government-subsidised SIV programmes, including the Vaccination Subsidy Scheme, the Government Vaccination Programme, the SIV School Outreach Programme and the Residential Care Home Vaccination Programme, provide free or subsidised influenza vaccinations to children and adolescents aged 6 months to under 18 years, adults aged 18 to 49 with chronic medical conditions (regardless of financial status), persons aged 50 or above (including the elderly living in residential care homes), pregnant women and healthcare workers, and others.

To encourage and offer convenience to members of the public to receive SIV, the Government has implemented four optimising initiatives this year, namely optimising vaccine procurement arrangements with the diversified, non-single-supplier procurement approach; introducing a new Electronic Consent Form feature viaeHealth; increasing the number of influenza vaccine doses to 300 000 under the Pilot Scheme on Vaccine Procurement for Doctors and expanding the eligibility groups of doctors; as well as strengthening the mobilisation of community resources. The Government will also continue to implement the Civil Service Eligible Persons SIV Pilot Scheme this year. Since civil servants frequently interact with members of the public, vaccinations can not only better safeguard their health, but also help reduce the risk of influenza transmission in the community.

The Secretary for Health, Professor Lo Chung-mau, said, "Various SIV programmes have been fully commenced on September 17 to provide free or subsidised SIV services for eligible persons. Since it takes about two weeks after receiving an SIV for antibodies to develop in the body and provide protection against influenza virus infection, I strongly urge members of the public to get vaccinated early."

For more details, members of the public may call the Centre for Health Protection of the Department of Health at 2125 2125 or visit the Vaccination Schemes page.

Source: AI-found images