Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau Hong Kong gazettes bill to enable voluntary information sharing among authorized institutions to combat financial crime

Hong Kong’s Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau has gazetted the Banking (Amendment) Bill 2025, proposing a framework to facilitate the sharing of information among authorized institutions (AIs) under specified conditions to improve the detection and prevention of crime. The bill would introduce a voluntary mechanism allowing AIs to share information on corporate and individual accounts through secure platforms designated by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) when they become aware of suspected prohibited conduct, namely money laundering, terrorist financing or financing of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Legal protection would be provided for disclosures made in good faith and with reasonable care, subject to specified confidentiality requirements, with the shared information restricted to use for detecting or preventing prohibited conduct; participating AIs would also need adequate controls to ensure information security. The HKMA previously consulted publicly on the proposed mechanism from January to March 2024 and also consulted the Hong Kong Association of Banks and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data on the bill’s detailed proposals. The bill is scheduled to be introduced into the Legislative Council for first reading on April 2.