Hong Kong’s licensing regime for virtual asset service providers to take effect in March 2023.

By Simon Hawkins, Adrian Fong, and Shirley Wong

On 24 June 2022, the Hong Kong government gazetted the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing (Amendment) Bill 2022 (Amendment Bill). The Amendment Bill proposes changes to the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Ordinance (Chapter 615) (AMLO) in order to introduce a licensing regime for virtual asset service providers (VASP) and impose statutory anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing (AML/CTF) obligations on the VASP sector.