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The Hong Kong Polytechnic University Launch AMTD Fintech Centre

The Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU), AMTD Group Company and AMTD Foundation jointly launch Hong Kong’s first university-industry collaborated Fintech centre.

The AMTD FinTech Centre of PolyU Faculty of Business (the FinTech Centre) aims for enhancing Hong Kong’s capabilities to be an international and leading FinTech hub in the world.

The launch ceremony of the Centre on PolyU campus was officiated by Mr Nicholas W. Yang, GBS, JP, Secretary for Innovation and Technology of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. Dr Annie Wu, SBS, JP, Chairperson of the Global Advisory Committee of AMTD Group, former Standing Committee Member of CPPCC, and Lifetime Honorary Board Member of the World Trade Centers Association also attended and witnessed the ceremony.

AMTD Group is a Hong Kong-based comprehensive financial institution group with services coverage across the Chinese mainland and the world. As one of the largest Hong Kong-based non-bank financial institution groups, AMTD has been widely recognized as a pre-eminent capital markets player with market leading cross-border investment banking capability in Asia.

The first university-industry collaborated FinTech centre in Hong Kong

Founded in 2003, AMTD has been dedicated to serving and connecting capital and resources across the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and the globe. AMTD has a long history of promoting technological innovation and the development of sharing economy, especially in the field of FinTech and Artificial Intelligence.

FinTech has been one of the most revolutionary forces for driving transformation in financial services and bringing convenience to people across the world. The challenges and opportunities come with FinTech developments are therefore of crucial relevance to Hong Kong, which has a large financial sector (18% of Gross Domestic Product; 6% of employment).

The Government is also determined to develop Hong Kong into a FinTech hub of the region, leveraging especially on the latest Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area initiatives.

Addressing at the ceremony, PolyU President Professor Timothy W. Tong thanked AMTD Group and AMTD Foundation for its generous donations and trust in PolyU. By pooling together the strengths of AMTD — a world-leading financial institution, and PolyU — a university excels in nurturing talents and research, he has confidence that the FinTech Centre would be able to achieve the shared vision: to better equip Hong Kong as an international and leading Fintech centre in the world.

“I believe that our partnership will further promote collaborations among academia, industry and government, and contribute to the Fintech development of Hong Kong and beyond.”

Mr Calvin Choi, Chairman and President of AMTD Group said,

“AMTD has always been committed to promoting the long-term development of FinTech in Hong Kong, the Greater Bay Area and across the globe, with particular emphasis on talent cultivation. Through the collaboration of AMTD and PolyU, the AMTD FinTech Centre of PolyU Faculty of Business will significantly contribute to the development and talent cultivation of FinTech in the Greater Bay Area.”

University-Industry collaboration for benefiting the community

The FinTech Centre will conduct FinTech related research, consultancy and training projects for the financial industry, provide support to start-ups, facilitate exchanges among local, Chinese mainland and overseas experts, and offer FinTech education for students, financial personnel and the public.

In addition to the around 200 academics of PolyU Faculty of Business specialized in key disciplines of business (accounting, finance, management, marketing, logistics and transport), the FinTech Centre will also have cross-disciplinary support from experts of other PolyU faculties/departments including computing, engineering and applied mathematics. Moreover, it will have strong backup from the industry led by AMTD Group.

The many PolyU alumni and post-graduate students who are also entrepreneurs or key executives in FinTech and related sectors will also become the centre’s valuable assets.

AMTD Group and the AMTD Foundation will support the long-term operation, education and research of the FinTech Centre with extensive industry resources, aiming to further promote the development of Hong Kong’s technological innovation, especially in FinTech arena.

Professor Wilson Tong, Director of the FinTech Centre, said the centre will also be benefited from the over 550 alumni and students of PolyU’s flagship doctorate programmes in business administration (DBA) and management (DMgt). PolyU’s DBA, launched in 1996, is the first doctorate programme of its kind in the region.

With about 40% of alumni and students working in information technology sector or financial industry, many holding lynchpin positions, they have been providing the University with a rich repertoire of expertise, capital, advices, testing ground and student participation opportunities in the related fields.

Resultant from strong industrial connections, Professor Tong, who is also PolyU’s Professor of Finance, said the University’s scholars have already been involving in some FinTech or related financial projects for addressing imminent problems in the industry or community.

Examples of projects undertaken, or on the drawing board, include detection system against telephone frauds, credit scoring system for loan markets, Artificial Intelligence-assisted Algo trading, blockchain applications on financing and “know your customer” background check.