Hong Kong Customs & Excise Department, Licensing Guide for Money Service Operators, May 2026
Regulatory status and conservative MSO wording.
Public references
Regulatory Basis
This page lists the public source categories used to keep website claims conservative, source-backed, and appropriate for bank and regulatory due diligence. Public references are listed on the Regulatory Basis page and in docs/source-register.md.
Hong Kong Customs & Excise Department, Guideline on AML/CFT for Money Service Operators, June 2023
AML/CFT control framework, senior management oversight, CO, MLRO, screening, monitoring, and record-keeping.
Hong Kong Customs & Excise Department, Guidelines for Submission of Business Plan by Applicant for MSO Licence/Licensee
Website, logo, management, target customers, transaction flow, agents, overseas MSOs, banking, and back-office evidence.
Hong Kong Customs & Excise Department, Guidelines for Submission of AML/CFT Policy by Applicant for MSO Licence/Licensee
AML policy structure, risk assessment, EDD, PEPs, sanctions, audit, training, and suspicious transaction reporting.
Joint Financial Intelligence Unit, How to identify a suspicion?
Suspicious activity escalation and STR handling language.
FATF, Guidance for a Risk-Based Approach for Money or Value Transfer Services
Proportionate risk-based controls and anti-de-risking context.
FATF, International Standards on Combating Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing and Recommendation 16 update
Structured originator/beneficiary information, payment-chain transparency, fraud and error prevention.
CPMI, Harmonised ISO 20022 data requirements for enhancing cross-border payments
Structured payment data, transparency, interoperability, and cross-border payment improvement.
CPMI, Promoting the harmonisation of APIs to enhance cross-border payments
API consistency, pre-validation, and reduced fragmentation.
Financial Stability Board, G20 Roadmap for Enhancing Cross-border Payments
Direction of travel for cross-border payment interoperability, legal/regulatory frameworks, and data standards.
Hong Kong Monetary Authority, Account Opening and Maintenance materials
Bank CDD expectations, business nature, purpose, UBO, and risk-based account-opening communication.
Hang Seng, HSBC, and Standard Chartered public business account-opening checklists
Business proof, website, brochures, counterparties, financials, source-of-funds, ownership charts, and tax forms.