Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) published a synopsis of panel remarks by Chief Executive Officer Julia Leung at Hong Kong FinTech Week 2026, outlining plans for agentic artificial intelligence (AI) guidance and a cybersecurity framework for licensed firms. Moving beyond her September discussion of whether further guidance was needed, the SFC will develop practical guidance grounded in principles for applications with greater autonomy. Human accountability and oversight must remain embedded throughout workflows, without requiring review at every intermediate step. Greater autonomy could begin with reversible workflows that have limited impact, while client advice, portfolio decisions and market execution require progressively stronger safeguards. The plans reflect expanding adoption among large firms. More than half of 20 surveyed financial groups were using or piloting agentic AI, and 80% expected further adoption over the next 12 months. The planned cybersecurity framework will establish baseline requirements for all licensed firms, supplemented by enhanced requirements for firms with higher risk profiles. Against threats amplified by AI, Leung reiterated that licensed corporations should prioritise critical security fixes and maintain robust cyber hygiene. Recent software vulnerabilities had prompted some firms to take websites offline, while vendor issues had caused operational disruptions at others. Leung also reviewed securities tokenisation, emphasising that further scale depends on tangible economic benefits. As of September 2026, the SFC had authorised 17 tokenised retail products with USD 1.3 billion in assets under management, up 34% over the preceding 12 months. Hong Kong had recently permitted secondary trading of tokenised money market funds on licensed virtual asset trading platforms, making them available around the clock. These were existing developments reviewed in the remarks, rather than newly introduced measures.

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