Assistant Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority: Banks must segregate their own assets if they custody virtual assets

Au King-chi, assistant chief executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (Banking Conduct), stated that the guidelines for the sale of tokenized products apply to the digital representation of real assets on the ledger, such as unregulated structured investment products, spot precious metals, and deposit products. The relevant real assets already have protection measures in place, and if they are tokenized in the future, there may be additional risks (mainly technological risks), such as the tokenized product being hacked or the system being shut down. When banks hold such assets in custody for clients, they must comply with five standards, including separating their own assets from clients' digital assets, risk management, safeguarding client assets, conducting due diligence on service providers, and providing disclosure.