On Friday, Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEX) announced that Andrew Loong is the new Managing Director and Head of Digital Assets. He will oversee the development of both products and infrastructure.
This isn’t HKEX’s first digital asset appointment, as he succeeds Andrew Walton, who joined in July 2022. Walton previously worked at OSL, the first Hong Kong licensed virtual asset firm. Loong’s most recent role was with OSL’s parent BC Technology as head of Head of Security Token Offering Structuring. BC Technology also has an institutional joint venture with Standard Chartered, Zodia Markets.
Loong is a lawyer with significant securities transactional experience, including at ANZ and Mizuho.
In March last year, Glenda So, now Loong’s boss, outlined HKEX plans which include the Diamond digital asset trading venue. At the time, she said that platform pilots were planned. It uses blockchain and smart contracts and will support multiple asset classes and 24 hour availability. HKEX’s COO recently outlined his vision of tokenized markets, starting with carbon credits.
HKEX also developed Synapse, a post trade platform for Stock Connect, which links Hong Kong and Mainland China’s equity markets. Whereas mainland China settles on the same day (T+0), for overseas investors the Synapse solution helps to bridge the standard T+2 gap rather than requiring a bespoke solution. Synapse uses Digital Asset’s Daml smart contract language.
