Speaking at the Hong Kong Institute of Bankers Conference yesterday, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of HKMA, Arthur Yuen said that Hong Kong’s new virtual banks could potentially soft launch some of its services in the fourth quarter of this year.

He did not specifically name the virtual banks who are potentially launching their services in the next few months but WeLab’s CEO Simon Loong revealed in an interview during the sidelines of the RISE conference that he’s looking to launch by this year.

Meanwhile, Infinitum which is owned by Tencent, Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing, Hillhouse Capital and Perfect Ridge recently undergone a rebranding exercise to rename itself to Fusion Bank seemingly in preparation towards a launch.

Airstar Bank’s chief executive, Frederic Lau told South China Morning Post that they are likely to offer very simple products in a way that focused on customer experience.

While Standard Chartered’s Deniz Guven said it was possible one virtual lender could debut a single product through a soft launch this year, but he did not anticipate most of the banks, including Standard Chartered, to begin operations this year.

This announcement is despite reports earlier this month that the city could face some delays in launching their virtual banks due to ongoing protest.