The Hong Kong Monetary Authority launched the agency-based financial SAGE project and established an expert group

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority announced the launch of the SAGE project to promote the responsible development and application of agentic finance in Hong Kong and established an expert group on agentic finance. SAGE stands for Securing Agentic Finance with Governance and Enablement, which means combining governance and enablement to build secure and reliable agentic finance. The members of the expert group come from financial institutions, technology service providers, professional service organizations, and academia.

The Monetary Authority stated that the SAGE project focuses on four areas: first, market development and application scenario exploration, including business-to-consumer (B2C) agentic shopping and daily payments, business-to-business (B2B) procurement and treasury management, as well as machine-to-machine (M2M) pay-per-use digital service fees; second, exploring methods for verifying artificial intelligence agent identities and authorization permissions, including "Know Your Agent (KYA)" and identity verification mechanisms; third, promoting discussions on interoperability standards and protocols; fourth, exchanging views on legal regulatory issues such as governance arrangements, legal responsibilities, and consumer protection.

The Monetary Authority's Chief Executive, Eddie Yue, stated that agentic finance has the potential to reshape the way financial services are provided and used. The Monetary Authority hopes to consolidate Hong Kong's position in the next generation of financial technology while promoting innovation through relevant measures and communication with industry experts, ensuring that agentic finance aligns with user interests and maintains the stability of the financial system.