Hong Kong selects 36 AI use cases for financial sector trials

Hong Kong just gave 36 teams a license to experiment with generative AI inside its financial system. The city’s regulators announced the inaugural cohort of the GenAI Sandbox++ program on August 27, selecting the use cases from nearly 100 proposals submitted by banks, insurers, asset managers, and their tech partners. The program involves 30 financial institutions and 27 technology partners, with technical trials set to begin later in 2026 at the Cyberport Artificial Intelligence Supercomputing Centre. What the sandbox actually covers The GenAI Sandbox++ is a joint effort by Hong Kong’s four financial regulators: the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), the Insurance Authority (IA), and the Mandatory Provident Fund Authority (MPFA). That’s banking, securities, insurance, and pensions all under one experimental umbrella. Previous sandbox iterations, launched in 2024, focused narrowly on banking. This expansion signals that regulators believe AI is ready for a much wider stress test across the entire financial services stack. The selected use cases cluster around three themes: risk management, anti-fraud systems, and customer experience. T...