Financial Infrastructure

Financial infrastructure encompasses the underlying systems that support payments, clearing, settlement, custody and cross-border liquidity management. Tokenized money, stablecoins and blockchain-based settlement are increasingly entering the traditional banking system, prompting correspondent banks to adapt their real-time operations, risk controls and business models. Developments such as the linkage between Hong Kong’s CMU and Switzerland’s SIX also reflect the continued integration of cross-border securities post-trade processing. These shifts could reshape competition among financial institutions, accelerate the adoption of digital assets and improve the efficiency of capital flows, making them important to track.