Ant Group is deepening its global ambitions through Hong Kong, positioning the city as a central base for cross-border financial innovation and enterprise growth. The company’s chairman, Eric Jing, outlined this direction during the tenth Hong Kong Fintech Week, underscoring Hong Kong’s unique role as both a regulatory testbed and an international hub for Chinese companies expanding abroad.
The announcement comes as Hong Kong strengthens its credentials as a regulated digital finance center. In August, the city’s first stablecoin law took effect, requiring issuers of fiat-referenced stablecoins to obtain licenses from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA). The move reinforced the territory’s efforts to balance innovation with oversight, an approach Jing described as “visionary and prudent.” He added that Ant’s long-term commitment aligns with Hong Kong’s drive to lead in regulated artificial intelligence and blockchain applications.
Expanding cross-border financial services
Under the leadership of its international arm, Ant International, Ant Group is expanding cross-border payment, account, and trade financing services from Hong Kong to help more Chinese enterprises access global markets. The initiative supports the city’s GoGlobal task force, launched by the Hong Kong government in October as a platform for mainland companies seeking overseas growth. The task force aims primarily to help them overcome challenges in international payments, trade settlement, and regulatory compliance.
“Hong Kong has a lot of advantages as a GoGlobal center for Chinese businesses: world-leading financial systems, outstanding professional services, and a pool of talents with global insights and knowledge,” said Jing at the event. “We look forward to expanding our cross-border payment, account, and trade financing services from here to help more Chinese companies reach overseas markets and capital.”
Ant International operates multiple platforms that support cross-border merchants. WorldFirst, its platform for small and medium enterprises, integrates international payment, collection, and treasury functions through a single account, enabling SMEs to transact seamlessly across territories.
Meanwhile, Antom, the company’s unified merchant payment service, provides integrated solutions to support smooth settlement and growth in foreign markets, including AI-powered, data-driven features.
Through Alipay+, Ant International also connects the city’s 4.5 million AlipayHK users and merchants to partner wallets across Southeast Asia, extending Hong Kong’s reach into regional payment ecosystems.
Technology and policy alignment
Ant’s decision to reinforce its Hong Kong base comes amid the city’s broader policy drive to institutionalize digital finance regulation. The stablecoin law represents a milestone in that evolution, requiring strict reserve management, governance, and disclosure standards for any issuer serving Hong Kong residents.
While analysts expect only a handful of licenses to be approved initially, the framework signals Hong Kong’s readiness to serve as a credible jurisdiction for regulated digital asset activity. For large fintech players such as Ant Group, this environment offers regulatory clarity that encourages innovation without the uncertainty seen in less defined markets.
Under HKMA’s Project Ensemble sandbox, launched to advance tokenization in Hong Kong, Ant International collaborated with Standard Chartered and HSBC on two use cases for global liquidity management, leveraging its Whale blockchain platform to enable real-time, cross-border institutional settlements in multiple currencies. Ant International later supported the co-development of HSBC’s first global tokenized deposit solution for corporate clients.
Beyond tokenization, Ant Digital Technologies, the group’s digital tech subsidiary, is among the first participants in a separate HKMA sandbox program that allows banks to test AI agents for risk management and anti-fraud applications. Earlier in 2025, the subsidiary also launched a joint AI and Web3 lab with Hong Kong Polytechnic University to accelerate breakthroughs and develop new fintech talent.
Jing described AI and tokenization as “two of the most critical forces driving the evolution of financial services,” noting that regulated experimentation in Hong Kong offers a proving ground for practical deployment at scale.
Setting its pilots aside, Hong Kong serves as a central node in Ant’s international operations where OceanBase, its distributed database provider, operates alongside Ant Digital Technologies and Ant International. From its early role facilitating cross-border Alipay payments for travelers, the city has evolved into what Jing called Ant’s “critical globalization anchor,” linking the company’s financial services with its broader digital technology infrastructure.
The alignment between Hong Kong’s financial regulatory direction and Ant’s global strategy is strategic. By situating major initiatives in the jurisdiction, Ant sees an opportunity to scale cross-border products under clear supervisory frameworks, an advantage as other markets continue to debate rules for digital assets and AI-driven finance.
This article was published in partnership with Ant International.