Hong Kong's central banking authority, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), updated the Register of Licensed Stablecoin Issuers on April 10, officially granting the city's first two licenses under the Stablecoin Ordinance. The recipients are Anchorpoint Financial Technology Limited (license number FRS01) and The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited (HSBC) (FRS02), both effective immediately.
Licenses delivered 10 days behind schedule
The Stablecoin Ordinance took effect in August 2025. By the time licenses were issued, the HKMA had received 36 formal applications. Financial Secretary Paul Chan had previously indicated at Consensus Hong Kong that the first batch of licenses would be granted in March; on April 1, however, no license had yet been issued, with the HKMA only stating it was "pushing ahead and will announce in due course." The actual granting date came about 10 days later than originally expected.
Anchorpoint: a JV of Standard Chartered, HKT and Animoca
Anchorpoint, holder of FRS01, was incorporated on the same day the ordinance took effect in August 2025 as a joint venture among Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong), Hong Kong Telecommunications (HKT) and Animoca Brands. It immediately signaled its intention to apply to the HKMA, becoming the first institution to kick off the licensing process under the new regime. The three partners have a clear division of labor: Standard Chartered provides banking infrastructure, reserve custody and governance frameworks; Animoca delivers blockchain network integration and Web3 application expertise; HKT contributes telecom infrastructure and mobile payment distribution channels, including its existing digital wallet user base. The sole goal: to issue a regulated HKD stablecoin.
Earlier reports by Bloomberg and the South China Morning Post in mid-March had tipped HSBC and Standard Chartered as the frontrunners — a prediction that came true, with the twist that Standard Chartered applied not directly but through its joint venture Anchorpoint. Market speculation about delayed progress after April 1 had proven unfounded.
HSBC gets FRS02 alone: note-issuing bank status bridges to on-chain HKD
HSBC holds FRS02 on its own. The HKMA considers note-issuing status as a positive factor in its review. Hong Kong currently has only three note-issuing banks: HSBC, Standard Chartered, and Bank of China (Hong Kong). In this first batch, HSBC took the license directly as a bank, Standard Chartered via Anchorpoint, while BOC Hong Kong did not appear in the initial list.