The following is issued on behalf of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority:
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) announced today (November 2) the launch of Project SAGE to support the responsible development and adoption of agentic finance in Hong Kong.
As Agentic A.I. technologies continue to mature, the financial industry is moving beyond internal adoption to explore how AI agents may make financial services more efficient and secure. This emerging paradigm, widely known as agentic finance, has the potential to transform customer engagement with financial services. Meanwhile, the associated risks and challenges need to be properly addressed to support its responsible development and adoption.
Against this backdrop, the HKMA launched Project SAGE, which stands for "Securing Agentic Finance with Governance and Enablement", to enable practical applications of agentic finance, while ensuring governance framework is in place. Project SAGE will focus on four key areas:
(1) Market Development and Use Case Exploration: Support industry participants and their partners in exploring and validating agentic finance use cases and solutions, while facilitating dialogue with the HKMA on practical implementation considerations and challenges. Potential areas of exploration include:
- Business-to-consumer (B2C), such as agentic commerce and everyday payments;
- Business-to-business (B2B), such as procurement and treasury management; and
- Machine-to-machine (M2M), such as usage-based payments for digital services;
(2) Agent Identity: Explore approaches to verifying AI agents' identities and delegated authority, including Know Your Agent (KYA) practices and authentication mechanisms, to facilitate their trusted participation in financial activities;
(3) Interoperability Standards: Facilitate industry discussion on interoperability-related topics, including relevant standards and protocols, to support secure and seamless interactions across the agentic finance ecosystem; and
(4) Legal and Regulatory Frameworks: Exchange views on legal and regulatory considerations arising from agentic finance, including governance arrangement, liability, consumer protection.
To bring together relevant expertise and perspectives, the HKMA has established the Agentic Finance Expert Group to support the work of Project SAGE. The group comprises relevant stakeholders including financial institutions, technology service providers, professional service firms and academia (see Annex for the list of members).
The Chief Executive of the HKMA, Mr Eddie Yue, said, "Agentic finance has the potential to transform how financial services are delivered and utilised. By introducing a series of initiatives and facilitating exchanges with industry experts, we aim to foster innovation while reinforcing Hong Kong's leading role in next generation of financial technology. These initiatives will help us navigate the opportunities and challenges ahead, ensuring that agentic finance serves the best interests of users while safeguarding the stability of our financial system."