Given the record growth in our industry, which regions and asset classes will lead in 2025 and beyond?
China will remain a key centre of focus in 2025 as it plays a more significant role in the increasing importance of Asia as an economic and innovative powerhouse. Global investors are underinvested in China, and we believe there is certainly scope for asset managers to increase their allocations in the world’s second-largest economy.
China’s economy is going through fundamental structural changes, its capital markets are expanding, domestic investors are looking to diversify their portfolios, and exciting companies are emerging in new sectors, including new energy and environmental protection, electric vehicles, artificial intelligence, biotech, advanced hardware and materials such as those used in semiconductors.
As a core financial market infrastructure in the region, HKEX has a clear role to play in connecting international capital to China and helping Chinese investors diversify their capital allocations internationally. We also provide choice and flexibility for global investors to express their views across asset classes, and in supporting the internationalisation of the renminbi.
What are the biggest trends disrupting traditional finance?
Trading behaviour among investors is constantly evolving, particularly amid the growing popularity of new asset classes in the digital era. There is also rising demand for faster and more efficient settlement, as well as markets that are open around the clock. This is an especially exciting time for exchanges, which need to balance the need to meet evolving investor and issuer demands with their roles as reliable, critical financial market infrastructure.
At HKEX, we are committed to continuously enhancing our market infrastructure as we anticipate evolving market trends. In 2024, we launched development of our integrated derivatives platform, the Orion Derivatives Platform, to provide modernised and efficient trading and post-trade services, as well as enabling our derivatives market to have the capability to offer round-the-clock trading. Likewise, we are enhancing the post-trade services in our cash equities market to meet the needs of our investors. It is very important for our infrastructure to be future-proofed and ready for new opportunities.
We are also actively exploring adjacent business opportunities in data and analytics, as well as new asset classes such as carbon and digital assets.
Have regulators struck the appropriate balance between addressing risk and promoting innovation?
At HKEX, we have a unique perspective on this, because we are both a listed is-suer regulator and a market operator. We recognise that the risk profile of some early-stage innovative companies may be different from that of well-established companies.
In 2018, we enhanced our listing framework with additional requirements to support the launch of innovative and new economy companies in our markets, addressing their fundraising needs whilst ensuring that a robust level of investor protection is in place.
These reforms transformed Hong Kong’s capital markets. We are now one of
the world’s top listing venues for new economy companies, welcoming over 340 of them since 2018, raising more than HK$1 trillion (US$128 billion) and accounting for about 65% of IPO funds over the period.
And thinking about innovation, which technology advances offer the most opportunity looking forward?
Innovation requires capital and funding to support its ongoing research and development, as well as the subsequent commercialisation and application. At HKEX, we are committed to providing a platform for companies with innovative ideas to raise funds, grow and make a better world for all.
Building on the success of the 2018 listing reforms for biotech and new economy companies, HKEX introduced another new chapter in 2023 to support the listing of specialist technology companies, such as next-generation information technology, advanced hardware, advanced materials, new energy and environmental protection and new food and agriculture technologies. Since then, we have welcomed three new companies under this new chapter.
We are situated at the heart of Asia’s capital markets, which puts us close to the incredible innovation happening from China’s science and technology clusters and the vibrant start-up culture emerging in Southeast Asia. It is essential we keep enhancing our listing framework to help connect Asia’s companies of tomorrow with global capital.
What is the biggest challenge ahead for your exchange or for the industry as a whole?
Whilst the global economy has shown signs of stabilising over the past year,
geopolitical risks and economic uncertainty are expected to continue shaping markets around the world in 2025.
Nonetheless, with favourable policy direction and economic stimulus measures from the Mainland Chinese authorities, as well as our efforts to enhance market microstructure and introduce ongoing listing reforms, we are confident that 2025 will bring great opportunities and deeper connectivity for our markets.
Given the rapid pace of new products introduced in 2024, which three excite you most?
In the derivatives market, global demand for short-dated options is on the rise, driven by wider access to trading tools, the rapid delivery of information via social media and elevated market volatility.
In light of this growing trend, I am most excited about the introduction of weekly Hang Seng TECH Index Options and weekly options for 10 single stocks. HKEX is the first market in Asia to offer stock options that expire on a weekly basis, with these weekly stock options referencing some of the largest stocks listed in Hong Kong.
The weekly stock options proved to be popular right from the start, and within a few weeks the volume of the weekly contracts accounted for about one-fourth of the volume of the corresponding single stock options products. This has been one of the most successful derivatives product launches at HKEX.
What more can the industry do to improve diversity in financial markets?
We believe exchanges like HKEX have a role to play in promoting diversity among listed issuers, as well as more broadly in the communities that we serve. I am very proud to say that HKEX is the first major exchange in the world to ban single-gender boards, with the deadline for compliance at the end of 2024.
Gender diversity is just one type of diversity, of course. And we believe, as an exchange, our job is not to decide what is right or wrong on behalf of everybody. Instead, we want to create a set of conditions that will enable corporates to make their own discoveries. And we believe that, with our recent rule, companies that previously had single-gender boards will experience the benefits of gender diversity firsthand and that will open them up to exploring diversity more broadly. Our issuer community has responded in an overwhelmingly positive way to this, with nearly all our companies in compliance, creating hundreds of director positions for women in Hong Kong in the last few years.
What was the most interesting film or play you saw in 2024?
I recently watched a Chinese movie called YOLO (You Only Live Once). It tells the story of a Chinese woman who confronts her own struggles, resolves to take control of her destiny and becomes a professional boxer.
It was very inspiring to me and carries a valuable message for many people facing new challenges – we need to believe in ourselves, make the effort to change and overcome these difficulties. Given that we “only live once,” we should seize every opportunity to live fully and fearlessly, leaving no room for regrets. We even hosted a special screening of this film for our colleagues last year.
