Virtual Banking

ZA Bank Pilots Sandbox for Express Online Account Opening for SMEs

Hong Kong’s virtual bank ZA announced that it has launched its sandbox trial of ZA Dash, an express online business account opening service, to address the pain points of local small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

This service is offered by ZA Bank under a pilot trial arrangement within the Hong Kong Monetary Authority’s Fintech Supervisory Sandbox.

The sandbox trial of ZA Dash will run for a month until 30 December 2022 and ZA is planning to invite 100 local SMEs across different sectors to participate.

Eligible companies can complete the business account opening procedures fully online in one working day after submitting the necessary documentations.

Additionally, participating SMEs will also receive an account opening fee waiver, including a total of HKD 1,200 account opening administrative fees and company search fees, to help them start their businesses.

They will also receive a Faster Payment System (FPS) transaction fee waiver for the first 6 months.

During the sandbox trial, SMEs can access a wide range of online banking services upon successful account opening, including local transfers, cross-border remittances and bulk payments, etc., with a convenient digital banking experience.

ZA Bank will then officially roll out the service in due course after completing this sandbox trial.

The bank officially launched Business Banking for local SMEs in March 2021 and has since introduced a number of credit facilities to help SMEs tackle challenges in financing.

SMEs interested in joining the pilot launch can submit their applications here.

Devon Sin

Devon Sin, Alternate Chief Executive of ZA Bank said,

“The launch of the sandbox trial of ZA Dash demonstrates our strong commitment to leveraging our digital edge to ease the burden on SMEs, bringing us one step closer to achieving our vision.

We hope ZA Dash can become the starting point of SMEs’ journey in digital finance, making financing easier for them.”