The Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, Christopher Hui, and the Deputy Chairman of the Central Bank of Uzbekistan (CBU), Abror Mirzo Olimov, exchanged a memorandum of understanding on gold market co-operation at the Belt and Road Summit on 9 September 2026. The Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau (FSTB) states that the memorandum covers the exchange of information and experience on precious metals market infrastructure, the services of the gold central clearing and settlement system operated by the Hong Kong Precious Metals Central Clearing Company Limited (HKPMCC), and the conditions for the CBU’s potential participation in precious metals operations in Hong Kong through the HKPMCC. The FSTB holds a bilateral meeting with the CBU on 10 September to work through the areas the memorandum sets out.
Balances in the HKPMCC system are unallocated. The FSTB’s statement on the commencement of the system’s trial operation on 7 July 2026 records that gold is held and settled on an unallocated basis with commingled holding, that eligible metal for settlement is approximately 400 fine troy ounce bars meeting international standards, and that Bank of China (Hong Kong) Limited is the settlement institution and designated vault, with a central ledger recording deposits, withdrawals and balances. A position on that ledger is a claim on commingled metal at one named vault, and the bars that answer it are identified at withdrawal rather than at settlement. Kilobars and 100 oz bars sit outside the eligible settlement class, so metal in those formats moves vault to vault against a weight list and stays on a serial-level record throughout. Whether a bar meets international standards is a status its producer holds under the LBMA Good Delivery List and the Responsible Sourcing Programme, and neither a memorandum nor a clearing membership confers it. The same 7 July statement records a target to raise Hong Kong’s total storage capacity above 2,000 tonnes within three years, with an Airport Authority Hong Kong project developing vaulting facilities at thousand-tonne scale.
The memorandum records areas of co-operation and a meeting date, and the CBU takes no participation in the HKPMCC system under it. Participation criteria, the Clearing Rulebook and vault designation are set by the HKPMCC, whose system remains in trial operation.