500 Dollars HSBC

HSBC's 500-dollar note occupies the top of the three-issuer system unique to Hong Kong, where three commercial banks — HSBC, Standard Chartered, and Bank of China (Hong Kong) — retain the legal authority to issue currency, with each note backed by US dollar reserves held through the Exchange Fund at a fixed rate of HK$7.80. That arrangement, unchanged since the 1983 peg, means these are genuine legal tender issued by a private bank, not a central bank — a distinction increasingly rare in the world.

De La Rue's involvement with HSBC's Hong Kong notes stretches back decades. The 2018 series introduced updated security architecture, including an upgraded security thread, in direct response to pressure from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority to modernize against improved counterfeiting technology circulating elsewhere in the region.