British multinational financial giant HSBC is setting up an artificial intelligence (AI) and emerging technology institute in Hong Kong, as the city’s largest bank steps up its AI push following a similar launch in Singapore this year.
HSBC is looking to launch the institute in the first quarter of 2027, Chief Executive Georges Elhedery said at Hong Kong’s Fintech Week event on Monday.
“The AI unit will work with Hong Kong University of Science and Technology as its anchor academic partner,” Elhedery said, without disclosing headcount details.
The bank would move the centre to Hong Kong’s Northern Metropolis, a mega project bordering mainland China, once the site allotted to HSBC is ready.
HSBC’s Hong Kong plan follows the Asia-focused lender’s announcement in July that it would hire more than 100 AI specialists at an AI centre in Singapore.
HSBC’s AI transformation also coincides with the broader industry trend, in which banks globally are cutting staff due to AI-driven overhauls.
Big industry players like Citi, Standard Chartered, and Barclays have already unveiled their plans of downsizing their headcounts.
Around 80% of all banks in Hong Kong are already adopting AI or generative AI, Eddie Yue, chief executive of Hong Kong’s de facto central bank, told the Fintech Week event.
Elhedery, supporting Yue, added that HSBC, one of Hong Kong’s largest private-sector employers with 28,000 local staff, will eventually roll out AI training for its entire global workforce of roughly 200,000 people.
“AI is going to be disruptive. It’s going to transform jobs,” Elhedery said.
Separately, Yue told reporters on the sidelines of the event that the regulator would launch Project SAGE to support the use of AI agents in finance while setting guardrails to manage risks.
“The HKMA (Hong Kong Monetary Authority) will create a cross-sector expert panel to test AI agent applications and interoperability,” Yue said.
The HKMA would further seek views on governance, accountability, a central register of trusted agents, and a possible “know your agent” standard before launching Project SAGE.
Yue stated that innovation and risk management must be closely integrated.
“The HKMA will expand trials of tokenised Exchange Fund Bills and examine whether regulated stablecoins can serve as a payment method,” the senior official concluded.
Image Courtesy: HSBC