Hong Kong’s regulated stablecoin market is developing across consumer payments, investment subscriptions and corporate transactions. HSBC’s RedCoin launch adds a major bank’s existing payment network to that expansion, bringing distribution and practical uses into focus.

Elsewhere, JP Morgan and ADB expanded working-capital risk sharing in India, while TerraPay integrated recipient verification with Kinexys Liink to address cross-border payment errors. Ripple expanded its treasury platform, and Malaysia and Thailand joined BLOOM’s work on common arrangements for digital-money settlement.

Read more on the week’s key developments:

1. HSBC launches RedCoin through PayMe’s established payment network

HSBC launched its Hong Kong dollar-denominated stablecoin, RedCoin, on 23 October through PayMe, with wallet activation rolling out to more than 3.3 million users and payments supported at more than 100,000 merchants. The launch implements the initial peer-to-peer and merchant-payment phase outlined on 30 September. HSBC plans to add mobile banking wallet functionality and tokenised investment subscriptions later this year, including a planned share class of its HKD money market fund, with corporate and institutional applications also planned.

RedCoin initially operates within HSBC-controlled infrastructure, with wider blockchain connectivity dependent on further regulatory approval. It runs on a private, permissioned blockchain operated by HSBC; public-chain connectivity would require HKMA approval. RedCoin is backed by segregated HKD reserve assets and redeemable at par, but pays no interest and is not covered by Hong Kong’s Deposit Protection Scheme. Rival Anchorpoint began rolling out HKDAP in August through distributors serving institutional, corporate and professional-investor markets.

2. JP Morgan and ADB expand working-capital risk sharing in India

JP Morgan Payments and the Asian Development Bank announced on 22 October an expanded collaboration to broaden access to working capital for businesses across India through a risk-sharing framework. The arrangement covers trade and working-capital finance across supply chains, including financing for manufacturers, buyers and suppliers. Target sectors include food, pharmaceuticals, electric vehicles and renewable energy.

The collaboration builds on a longstanding relationship. In 2017, ADB and JP Morgan introduced a funded risk-sharing product expected to support more than $100 million in trade across developing Asia. The latest announcement extends their cooperation to Indian corporates and their supply chains. ADB’s guarantee transfers part of the credit risk on eligible exposures, potentially enabling JP Morgan to finance transactions that would otherwise be constrained by its credit limits or risk appetite.

3. Ripple adds round-the-clock cash management and returns to corporate treasury platform

Ripple launched new capabilities for Ripple Treasury on 26 October, connecting cash positioning, forecasting, reconciliation, liquidity management and payments. The platform includes 24/7 Returns, which allows eligible corporate customers to generate returns on qualifying digital assets held in a Ripple wallet, including Ripple’s dollar-backed stablecoin RLUSD, subject to programme requirements. Ripple says customers can put eligible assets to work outside traditional banking hours without managing the underlying digital-asset transactions themselves.

The announcement builds on Ripple’s $1 billion GTreasury acquisition, announced in October 2025, and September’s expansion of GSmart’s treasury AI capabilities. The announcement does not specify the underlying return-generating strategy, which corporate treasury teams would need to assess alongside access to liquidity and investment policies.

4. Malaysia and Thailand join BLOOM as participants test trade and settlement applications

The Monetary Authority of Singapore announced on 23 October that Bank Negara Malaysia and the Bank of Thailand had joined BLOOM as policymaker members. Participants are developing common arrangements for accepting, exchanging and settling tokenised deposits and regulated stablecoins across jurisdictions, including contractual arrangements, identity verification and sanctions controls. MAS says this could reduce the separate agreements and integrations financial institutions need for each counterparty or market.

Under BLOOM, Ripple announced a pilot with trade finance technology provider Unloq in March using RLUSD to release trade payments when predefined conditions, such as shipment verification, are met. Visa announced a pilot with Nium in August, also under BLOOM, to explore stablecoin settlement across weekends and public holidays. These applications depend on receiving institutions being able to recognise, accept and settle the digital money under their own regulatory and operating requirements. BLOOM’s common arrangements seek to address those requirements across jurisdictions.

5. TerraPay integrates payee verification with JP Morgan’s Kinexys Liink

TerraPay announced on 22 October that it had integrated its Verify payee-verification service with JP Morgan’s Kinexys Liink Confirm application. The integration allows banks and non-bank financial institutions connected to Liink, as well as TerraPay Verify clients, to validate recipient bank-account and digital-wallet details across global markets before initiating payments.

The service targets payment failures caused by inaccurate beneficiary information, adding TerraPay’s verification coverage to Confirm’s existing account-validation capabilities. Checking recipient details before funds move can reduce rejected payments and the manual work needed to investigate and resubmit them. The announcement establishes expanded verification access, but provides no measured reduction in payment failures or fraud.

6. Visa expands commercial payment tools alongside AI-agent invoice pilot

Visa announced enhanced commercial payment capabilities on 21 October, including supplier-spend analytics, virtual-card fraud controls and a live invoice-payment pilot with BILL and Billtrust first announced the previous day. In the pilot, an authorised AI agent initiates and completes approved invoice payments through supplier portals using tokenised credentials and buyer-defined controls. Visa said end-to-end transactions were being processed with participating BILL customers and Billtrust suppliers.

The pilot extends Visa’s Trusted Agent Protocol, introduced with partners in October 2025, into business invoice payments across buyer and supplier platforms. Billtrust authenticates the agent accessing the supplier portal, allowing it to complete an approved payment without shared supplier login credentials. The buyer retains payment approval authority while the agent carries out the portal interaction.

7. SMBC and Ant International collaborate on cross-border payments and intercompany liquidity

Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) and Ant International signed a memorandum of understanding on 26 October to collaborate on cross-border payments and transaction flows involving Japan, Singapore and Southeast Asia. SMBC will support Ant International’s Alipay+, Antom and WorldFirst businesses with payments and treasury management. The parties will also explore integrating Ant’s Whale RTP platform with SMBC’s digital payment and asset solutions to support intercompany treasury and global liquidity management.

Ant has already pursued related treasury initiatives with other banks, including DBS’s treasury-token pilot and Standard Chartered’s HKD blockchain test settlement. On 7 October, OCBC announced a tokenised-deposit service enabling Ant to manage liquidity between Singapore and Malaysia around the clock. SMBC’s agreement adds another potential banking connection to that network, although its proposed technical integration remains exploratory.

8. Ping An Digital Bank adds receivables and invoice finance for trade SMEs

Ping An Digital Bank launched Receivables Financing and Invoice Financing on 21 October for Hong Kong importers and exporters, offering revolving facilities of up to HKD 50 million ($6.4 million). Exporters can obtain advances against outstanding receivables using commercial invoices and bills of lading, while importers can have approved financing paid directly to suppliers, with repayment terms of three to six months. The bank says digital drawdowns can provide funds in as little as one business day.

The products extend an offering that includes purchase-order financing and cross-border e-commerce revolving loans. They address different points in the trade cash cycle: exporters obtain liquidity while awaiting customer payments, while importers finance supplier payments before generating sales proceeds. For its existing Trade-Connect loans, the bank also uses consenting Tradelink customers’ trade-declaration data to support credit assessment.

9. EBRD renews EUR 4.5 billion trade facilitation programme

The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development renewed its Regional Trade Facilitation Programme on 21 October, with a maximum outstanding amount of EUR 4.5 billion ($5.1 billion). The programme provides guarantees covering payment risk on trade-finance instruments issued by participating banks and factors, as well as revolving cash advances that allow participating institutions to finance exporters and importers.

The programme began in 1999 and was previously renewed in February 2025. At the end of 2025, more than 140 banks and factoring companies in 27 EBRD countries of operation were accredited, while more than 800 banks in 82 countries participated as confirming banks. The renewal maintains this established channel connecting local trade lenders with international confirming institutions.

10. AfDB approves EUR 40 million trade-finance facility for AFG Bank Cameroon

The African Development Bank approved a EUR 40 million ($44.9 million) facility for AFG Bank Cameroon on 21 October, comprising a EUR 30 million ($33.7 million) trade-finance credit line over 3.5 years and a EUR 10 million ($11.2 million) transaction guarantee facility over five years. The guarantee can provide up to 100% coverage to confirming banks for eligible letters of credit and similar trade-finance instruments issued by AFG Bank Cameroon. Half of the credit line is earmarked for SMEs, with 30% of that SME allocation directed to women- or youth-owned enterprises.

The credit line funds AFG’s trade lending, while the guarantee covers eligible payment risk faced by confirming banks. Providing liquidity to the issuing bank alone does not remove that risk. The facility extends an approach AfDB has also used with Cameroon’s CCA-Bank, whose earlier package combined a trade credit line with a transaction guarantee.