Hong Kong Monetary Authority CMU and Macau Monetary Authority's Central Securities Depository System will be directly interconnected.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) and the Monetary Authority of Macao jointly announced today that the Central Money Market Unit (CMU) of the HKMA and the Central Securities Settlement Company of Macau (a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Monetary Authority of Macau) will establish a direct connection between their respective securities settlement systems. The official launch date and specific arrangements for the direct connection will be announced in due course. Under the direct connection arrangement, Hong Kong investors will be able to settle, clear, and hold bonds deposited in the Macau Central Securities Depository System through their accounts at the CMU, while Macau investors will be able to settle, clear, and hold bonds deposited in the CMU through their accounts at the Macau Central Securities Depository System. This arrangement will mark a new milestone in financial cooperation between Hong Kong and Macau and will have significant and far-reaching implications for the coordinated development of the core cities in the Greater Bay Area. Eddie Yue, Chief Executive of the HKMA, stated that in recent years, the HKMA has progressively established mutual connectivity with multiple neighboring financial markets, strengthening regional cooperation, introducing more opportunities for various financial services, especially RMB business, providing domestic and foreign investors with a more diversified range of investment products, and further enhancing Hong Kong's competitiveness as an international financial center. Building on this foundation, promoting the interconnection of the bond market infrastructures in Hong Kong and Macau is an important manifestation of the coordinated development of the financial markets in the Greater Bay Area and can leverage the CMU's role as a super connector to develop into an international central securities depository platform in Asia. Chen Sau Sin, Chairman of the Monetary Authority of Macau, stated that the bond market is a key entry point for the Macau SAR government to develop new financial formats and promote moderately diversified economic development, providing another financing channel for important national strategic deployments such as the construction of the Greater Bay Area. Furthermore, based on the historical ties between Macau and Portuguese-speaking countries, by connecting with the bond market infrastructure in Hong Kong, Macau will be able to further play a bridging role between China and Portuguese-speaking countries, consolidate the function of Macau as a "Sino-Portuguese financial service platform," and achieve mutual connectivity between the financial markets and financial infrastructures in the Greater Bay Area.