Insights
China seeks positions digital yuan for cross-border trade settlements
China’s Cross-border e-CNY Transfer Services (CBETS) signals a strategic shift for the digital yuan from retail payments to wholesale cross-border settlement. By combining this blockchain-based e-CNY infrastructure with mBridge and CIPS, Beijing is building a layered alternative for trade finance, remittances and financial messaging across Asia, the Middle East and beyond.
Asian jurisdictions jostle to become the region’s gold hub
Asia’s gold market is entering a decisive phase. As Dubai, Shanghai, Singapore and Hong Kong advance their respective ambitions to become region’s gold hub, the greater opportunity may lie not in a single winner, but in a more connected Asian ecosystem that deepens liquidity, strengthens resilience, and builds institutional trust.
Hong Kong builds strategic case for a gold hub
Hong Kong’s gold hub could diversify the city’s financial sector beyond traditional banking and IPOs while helping Mainland China advance RMB internationalisation, reserve diversification and gold market infrastructure. Its success will depend on liquidity, transparency, cross-border interoperability and credible governance amid geopolitical and sanctions-related pressures.
Hong Kong bets on gold
Hong Kong’s gold hub ambition is more than bullion transit. It aims to build Asian-time-zone pricing, clearing, custody and risk management by upgrading the city’s existing gold ecosystem into a full institutional market infrastructure.