(2 November 2026 – Asia) The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) and Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) are strengthening AI regulatory frameworks to attract investment and promote responsible AI adoption in banking.
The HKMA will extend testing of agentic AI through its GenAI Sandbox++ and publish a discussion paper on the governance of AI agents.
The MAS issued guidelines requiring banks to manage AI risks at both enterprise and individual use case levels. The guidelines cover governance, data, testing, human oversight, cybersecurity and third-party services and will take effect in phases from October 2027.
HSBC has 150 AI specialists in Hong Kong and continues to expand the team alongside its plan for a Global AI Centre of Excellence in Singapore according to HSBC Co-CEO Asia and Middle East, David Liao.
“They have already developed tools to support relationship managers with client engagement and transformed the handling of complaints in our contact centres. We will double AI specialist headcount in Hong Kong from 150 to 300 over the next two to three years, which is larger than the workforce planned for the Singapore centre of excellence” Liao commented to Ryan Cheng reporting for FinanceAsia.