"The true goal of Hong Kong's 'sunny scheme' has never been stablecoins" (Author: Will A Wang)

If you assume that the purpose of this licensing is to "expand the Hong Kong dollar stablecoin industry," then every detail might not make complete sense. But if you consider an alternative hypothesis—that this licensing was originally meant to support not the "commercial stablecoin industry" itself—then it makes more sense.
HSBC and Standard Chartered may not have come with strategic intent.
For HSBC, applying for a Hong Kong dollar stablecoin is more of a defensive move rather than an active strategy;
Standard Chartered has some initiative, but for it, Hong Kong is just a node on the global map, and Hong Kong has never been its main battlefield;
The truly motivated, locally-oriented bank—Bank of China Hong Kong—was absent.
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