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Payment Firms Hold 7 of 22 Seats on HKMA's Agentic AI Group
Payment companies and card networks hold 7 of the 22 seats on the Hong Kong Monetary Authority's new Agentic Finance Expert Group, by HaiPay's count. Five members also take part in the HKMA's Ensemble tokenisation pilot, and both of Hong Kong's licensed stablecoin issuers are on the group.
Key takeaways 6
- The HKMA set up a 22-member Agentic Finance Expert Group on 2 November 2026 to support Project SAGE.
- By HaiPay's count, 7 members are payment firms or card networks, including Visa, Mastercard and Adyen.
- The group also has 3 banks, 1 stablecoin issuer, 7 technology firms, 3 professional firms and 1 academic.
- Five members also take part in Ensemble TX, the HKMA's tokenisation pilot.
- Both licensed stablecoin issuers in Hong Kong, Anchorpoint and HSBC, are members.
- Ensemble TX now has 12 banks and 20 other pioneers, up from 7 and 13 in 2025.
Payment companies and card networks hold 7 of the 22 seats on the Agentic Finance Expert Group that the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) set up on 2 November, by HaiPay's count of the published membership list. The group will support Project SAGE, the HKMA's new programme on financial services carried out by AI agents.
The HKMA lists 11 financial institutions, 7 technology service providers, 3 professional service firms and one academic. Among the financial institutions, HaiPay counts Adyen, Ant International, Mastercard, Payment Cards Group (A3A Paytech), UnionPay International, Visa Hong Kong and WeChat Pay Hong Kong as payment firms, alongside three banks and one stablecoin issuer.
What Project SAGE covers
SAGE stands for Securing Agentic Finance with Governance and Enablement. The HKMA says it will explore use cases including agentic commerce and everyday payments, procurement and treasury management, and usage-based payments between machines. It will also look at how to verify AI agents' identities and delegated authority, which the HKMA calls Know Your Agent, as well as interoperability standards and legal questions such as liability and consumer protection.
The same names across the HKMA's lists
On the same day, the HKMA said Ensemble TX, the pilot phase of its tokenisation project, now settles tokenised deposit transactions between banks around the clock in tokenised central bank money. Its participants rose to 12 banks, from 7 that joined in 2025, and 20 other industry pioneers, from 13.
Five members of the agentic finance group also appear on the Ensemble TX lists: Bank of China (Hong Kong), Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong), HSBC, Ant International and JINGDONG Technology. Both of Hong Kong's licensed stablecoin issuers, Anchorpoint Financial and HSBC, sit on the expert group, as does Circle Hong Kong. WeChat Pay Hong Kong holds a stored value facility licence from the HKMA.
What this does not show
The membership list does not say how the group will work, how often it will meet or whether members will run live pilots. The split of financial institutions into payment firms, banks and a stablecoin issuer is HaiPay's, not the HKMA's. HaiPay matched organisations by name only. HaiPay did not contact the HKMA or any member.
What to watch
Which agentic payment use cases the HKMA and members test first under Project SAGE.
Whether the HKMA sets out Know Your Agent expectations for banks and SVF licensees.
And whether the stablecoin trials the HKMA says it will add to its tokenised Exchange Fund Bills work bring in the two licensed issuers.
About HaiPay's local payment methods in Hong Kong
HaiPay, which publishes this news section, offers local payment methods through one integration. For Hong Kong, its local payment page lists Apple Pay, Google Pay, Alipay HK, WeChat HK, PayMe, Visa, Mastercard and China UnionPay. Learn more about HaiPay's local payment methods.
Data highlight
7 of 22 members
Members of the HKMA's Agentic Finance Expert Group that HaiPay classifies as payment companies or card networks
As announced on 2 November 2026
The HKMA's annex of 2 November 2026 lists 22 members of the Agentic Finance Expert Group: 11 financial institutions, 7 technology service providers, 3 professional service firms and 1 academic. HaiPay classified 7 of the 11 financial institutions as payment companies or card networks: Adyen, Ant International, Mastercard, Payment Cards Group (A3A Paytech), UnionPay International, Visa Hong Kong and WeChat Pay Hong Kong. The classification is HaiPay's, not the HKMA's.
Data as of 3 November 2026 · UTC
Methodology and limitations
Compiled by HaiPay on 3 November 2026 from the HKMA's press releases of 2 November 2026 on Project SAGE and Project Ensemble and their annexes, the HKMA register of licensed stablecoin issuers and the HKMA's register of stored value facility (SVF) licensees, read through its public API. The HKMA groups the 22 expert group members into financial institutions, technology service providers, professional service firms and academia. Within the 11 financial institutions, HaiPay classified Adyen, Ant International, Mastercard, Payment Cards Group (A3A Paytech), UnionPay International, Visa Hong Kong and WeChat Pay Hong Kong as payment companies or card networks, Bank of China (Hong Kong), Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) and HSBC as banks, and Anchorpoint Financial as a stablecoin issuer; this split is HaiPay's, not the HKMA's. HaiPay matched names across lists by organisation name; group companies with different names, such as Ant International and Alipay Financial Services (HK), were not treated as the same entity. HaiPay did not contact the HKMA or the members.
Data and research materials
- HKMA Agentic Finance Expert Group members, with HaiPay type and presence on other HKMA lists (HaiPay) ↓CSV · 2 KB
22 rows compiled by HaiPay on 3 November 2026 from the HKMA's 2 November 2026 annex listing members of the Agentic Finance Expert Group. Columns: HKMA category, member name as listed, HaiPay's type for financial institutions (payment firm or card network, bank, stablecoin issuer), and whether the member appears on the Ensemble TX participant annexes, the register of licensed stablecoin issuers and the register of non-bank stored value facility licensees, matched by organisation name.
HaiPay's charts and the CSV table on this page may be reused with attribution to HaiPay and a link to this article. The member lists and registers are published by the HKMA; the classification of members and the matching across lists are HaiPay's.
Term definition
- Agentic finance
- Financial services in which AI agents act for users or businesses, such as initiating payments or managing treasury, within limits the user sets.
- Know Your Agent (KYA)
- Practices for verifying an AI agent's identity and the authority delegated to it before it takes part in financial activity.
- Tokenised deposit
- A bank deposit represented as a digital token on a distributed ledger, issued by a regulated bank.
6 sources
- Hong Kong Monetary Authority
HKMA launches Project SAGE and establishes Expert Group for agentic finance
HKMA press release, 2 November 2026: launch of Project SAGE (Securing Agentic Finance with Governance and Enablement) with four focus areas, including B2C use cases such as agentic commerce and everyday payments, B2B procurement and treasury, machine-to-machine usage-based payments, and agent identity (Know Your Agent); establishment of the Agentic Finance Expert Group.
Accessed 3 November 2026 · UTC
- Hong Kong Monetary Authority
Annex: Members of the Agentic Finance Expert Group
Annex to the 2 November 2026 release: 22 members in four categories: financial institutions (11), technology service providers (7), professional service firms (3) and academia (1).
Accessed 3 November 2026 · UTC
- Hong Kong Monetary Authority
HKMA advances Project Ensemble pilot phase to 24/7 settlement in tokenised Central Bank Money
HKMA press release, 2 November 2026: Ensemble TX supports 24/7 interbank settlement of tokenised deposit transactions in tokenised central bank money; participating banks rose to 12 and industry pioneers to 20.
Accessed 3 November 2026 · UTC
- Hong Kong Monetary Authority
Annex A and Annex B: Tokenised Deposit Banks and Other Industry Pioneers of Ensemble TX
Annexes A and B: 7 tokenised deposit banks joined in 2025 and 5 in 2026; 13 other industry pioneers joined in 2025 and 7 in 2026, listed by name.
Accessed 3 November 2026 · UTC
- Hong Kong Monetary Authority
Register of Licensees under the Stablecoins Ordinance (Cap. 656)
HKMA register of licensed stablecoin issuers, last revised 23 April 2026, read 3 November 2026: Anchorpoint Financial Limited (FRS01) and The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited (FRS02), both effective 10 April 2026.
Accessed 3 November 2026 · UTC
- Hong Kong Monetary Authority
Register of Stored Value Facility Licensees (HKMA API)
HKMA API register of stored value facility licensees, read 3 November 2026: 11 non-bank licensees, including WeChat Pay Hong Kong Limited (SVF0005); a separate segment lists 4 licensed banks issuing SVF, including Bank of China (Hong Kong) and HSBC.
Accessed 3 November 2026 · UTC
How to cite
HaiPay News, "Payment Firms Hold 7 of 22 Seats on HKMA's Agentic AI Group", https://www.haipay.net/news/hkma-agentic-finance-expert-group-payment-firms, 3 November 2026
