The trend of financial jurisdictions joining hands to foster cross-border fintech innovation continues.

Hong Kong's Securities and Futures Commission has entered a cooperation agreement with the Dubai Financial Services Authority to keep up to speed with developments in fintech, continuing a theme of jurisdictions signing such pacts in Asia and further afield.

The Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA) and the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) of Hong Kong have signed an agreement to co-operation with one another in the field of innovative financial technology.

Both regulators say that they are aiming at an "innovations-friendly ecosystem" in their markets. They promise to  share information about developments and innovations and want to refer innovative firms to each other’s markets and to provide them with regulatory guidance. Mr Ian Johnston, the chief executive of the DFSA, and Mr Ashley Alder, the chief executive of the SFC, signed the agreement in Hong Kong.

A number of Asian jurisdictions have signed such agreements to push ahead fintech development, hoping to win business in burgeoning areas around artificial intelligence, robo-advisory, machine learning, Big Data, and robotics. For example, in July this year, Singapore’s central bank and regulator, the Monetary Authority of Singapore,forged an alliance with the Bank of Thailand to foster the growth of both nation’s financial technology sectors. In late June, the MAS signed a similar deal with its counterpart in Denmark.

Both regulators are signatories to the IOSCO (International Organisation of Securities Commissions) Multi-lateral Memorandum of Understanding (MMoU). They also signed an MoU with each other in 2008.

The DFSA introducted regulations that "formalised a tailored regime for loan and investment crowdfunding platforms" on the first of this month, thereby blazing a trail for the rest of the states that belong to the Gulf Co-operation Council. On 24 May, the DFSA also started handing out Innovation Testing Licences (ITLs), a means of allowing fintechs to develop their wares relatively unencumbered by normal rules. It has also come up with its own "FinTech Hive".

For its part, the SFC established the FinTech Contact Point in March last year to help businesses involved in the development and application of fintech and regulatory technology in Hong Kong talk to each other, learn the regulatory rules keep informed about developments in the local industry.

The SFC also inked another co-operation deal - around exchange of information around companies - in July this year with the UK's Financial Conduct Authority. That Memorandum of Understanding, which encompasses financial market entities and others regulated by the SFC or the FCA, enables both regulators to “cooperate with each other in the interest of fulfilling their respective regulatory mandates".