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Hong Kong (HK) · Module Detail

Hong Kong: Operational Resilience & Critical Infra

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Hong Kong's FPS underwent its first-ever scheduled 10-hour outage (9 Aug 2026), also the first outage affecting Payment Connect since June 2025 launch.

Horizon · 2026-05-31 (± a quarter)HKMA OR-2 Operational Resilience full-implementation deadline for authorized institutionsAdopted, not yet in force · Tier 1 source
Standing sub-brief · as of 4 July 2026142 words · last cycle 2026-09-05

Operational Resilience & Critical Infrastructure

SPM module OR-2 'Operational Resilience' (issued 31 May 2022) required authorized institutions to develop an operational-resilience framework within one year and to fully implement it — identifying critical operations, setting disruption tolerances, mapping interconnections, scenario-testing and remediating — by 31 May 2026. The framework is reinforced by the TM-C-1 Supervisory Approach on Cyber Risk Management (current 10 April 2025), C-RAF 2.0, the SA-2 outsourcing and third-party guidance, and PCICSO critical-infrastructure obligations. This is Hong Kong's functional analogue to the EU's DORA and the UK's PS21-3, with the 31 May 2026 full-implementation deadline a hard milestone for authorized institutions, including bank PSPs.

Periodic update · new data 2026-09-05

Operational Resilience & Critical Infrastructure

Hong Kong's Faster Payment System is scheduled for its first-ever planned outage on 9 August 2026, a 10-hour maintenance window running from 1:00am to 11:00am Hong Kong time, confirmed by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. It is the first scheduled interruption to FPS since the system's September 2018 launch. The same maintenance window will suspend Payment Connect cross-border transfers, marking the first outage to affect that corridor since its June 2025 launch. Payment Connect links FPS to the PBoC-operated Internet Banking Payment System, reaching over 430 mainland banks, and settled 9,400 cross-border transactions within hours of its 22 June 2025 launch. Coupling a domestic retail rail with a fast-growing cross-border corridor inside a single maintenance event suggests Hong Kong and mainland authorities now treat FPS and Payment Connect as one operationally-coupled critical-infrastructure surface rather than as separable domestic and cross-border systems.

Outlook

Whether the FPS and Payment Connect outage completes within its planned 10-hour window will be the near-term test of this operationally-coupled infrastructure design, and any recurrence of coupled scheduled maintenance would confirm this as a durable pattern rather than a one-off.

Sources and findings (4)
  1. T1https://brdr.hkma.gov.hk/eng/doc-ldg/docId/20220531-2-ENretrieved
  2. T1https://brdr.hkma.gov.hk/eng/doc-ldg/docId/getPdf/20260529-5-EN/20260529-5-EN.pdfretrieved
  3. T1https://brdr.hkma.gov.hk/eng/doc-ldg/docId/20241202-2-ENretrieved
  4. T1https://brdr.hkma.gov.hk/chi/doc-ldg/docId/getPdf/20260529-8-TC/20260529-8-TC.pdfretrieved