The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) on Monday unveiled a fresh five-year blueprint, Fintech 2030, to drive the sector's growth and put in place a future-ready eco-system, with artificial intelligence and the tokenisation of traditional assets in focus.

The plan was unveiled by HKMA Chief Executive Eddie Yue, who said a one-stop clearing and settlement service for tokenised money market funds could be rolled out by the end of the year as the first project under the new vision.

Delivering a keynote speech at Hong Kong FinTech Week being held in Wan Chai, Yue noted the latest blueprint marks the third stage of the city's fintech strategy, which was first launched in 2017 and upgraded in a second phase in 2021.

The third stage focuses on four strategic pillars: developing robust next-generation data and payment infrastructure; driving the responsible use of AI across the financial industry; setting up fintech-tailored cybersecurity frameworks; and speeding up tokenisation of financial assets.

A pilot scheme, Project Ensemble, will also be launched to explore more tokenisations in traditional finance, enabling "real-value" transactions in tokenised deposits and digital assets.

Speaking at the event, Yue said Hong Kong is now ready to enter the so-called "fintech 3.0" era, when technology is embedded in everyday life and fintech has been applied by the vast majority of the local banking sector, including all of the city's retail lenders.

"The momentum behind this transformation is underscored by substantial technological investment, with total spending projected to reach more than HK$100 billion every year in the next three years," he told participants, many of whom fintech elites.

"This self-reinforcing momentum is exactly what a thriving and healthy fintech ecosystem should possess, it is happening right now here in Hong Kong," he said.

Speaking later, Yue said the first project to be rolled out soon could put in place a comprehensive settlement system for existing tokenised money market funds.

While banks can use tokenised deposits to settle such funds, settlements among different lenders could involve the use of central bank digital currencies.

Yue said authorities here have been in talks with the central banks of Brazil and Thailand to allow the use of blockchain and tokenisation to enable much faster and cheaper cross-border trade transactions.

The HKMA, he added, has also been studying how to use blockchain technology to facilitate trade finance for companies looking to expand their businesses.

"We are very interested and hope to use blockchain technology to tokenise our trade financing process as much as possible, making trade financing faster, cheaper and more inclusive," Yue said.

"We aim to enable more small and medium-sized enterprises to obtain corporate financing through this new platform and also help them go global."

In total, the new plan involves over 40 initiatives.