Hong Kong-based 33 Finance, which provides international prepaid card issuance services, has partnered with American Express to launch the 33 Finance American Express® Prepaid Card in Hong Kong. As American Express’ first prepaid card in Hong Kong, the product is now available either as a single load American Express Gift Card, or a reloadable American Express Personal Card. As consumers continue to shift away from using cash, many new payment solutions are being made available to the market. Among all, prepaid cards are secure, convenient, flexible and versatile, and can be topped up a single time for use as a…

BMW Korea announced that it will launch BMW Vantage, a blockchain-based rewards program before rolling it out for a global launch. BMW Vantage provides integrated services across lifestyles such as mobility, travel, culture, education, both online and offline through its ‘BMW Coin’ ecosystem. The accumulated coins can be used for all paid services in the app and affiliate services. It can be also accumulated by participating in events or games within the app even if you do not purchase their vehicle. In commemoration of the release of BMW Vantage, customers who purchase the New 5 Series and New 6 Series…

End of 2018 we named the 19 fintech startups we believed were the hottest fintechs in Hong Kong. Fast forward 2 years, we look back at these fintech companies to see what they’ve been up to and have nominated 15 new Top Fintech Startup in HK to watch. Wealthtech Futu Securities Futu Securities, a Tencent-backed online stock brokerage, launched in August 2019 a new online wealth management service called Money Plus. Futu Securities raised US$90 million a New York initial public offering (IPO) in March 2019, becoming the first Chinese online broker to go public overseas, according to China…

Hong Kong is currently home to more than 600 fintech companies with 76% of them focusing on the business-to-business (B2B) market. These companies leverage technologies including big data, artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, insurtech, regtech, credittech, and wealthtech to serve the business and consumer markets with fast, convenient and cost-effective products and services. To help our readers understand and keep up with this rapidly growing and evolving landscape, we have compiled a list of the top 15 fintech companies in Hong Kong to watch out for in 2020/2021. Bowtie Founded in 2018, Bowtie is the first virtual insurance company to provide residents…

Ten fintech companies have been selected for the seventh annual FinTech Innovation Lab Asia-Pacific, a mentorship program created by Accenture that helps startups fine-tune their business plans and solutions by pairing them with mentors from leading financial institutions. This year’s program received applications from 162 companies across more than 30 countries, with solutions related to the five themes for the 2020 program: data & analytics; digital bank solutions; emerging technologies; health insurance ecosystem; and intelligent automation. Leveraging artificial intelligence (AI), advanced analytics, natural language processing and other technologies, the 10 selected startups — which hail from seven markets — have…

EMQ, Hong Kong-based financial settlement network, announced the launch of its high transaction value cross-border settlements in Japan. This launch will enable global businesses to send a maximum of JPY30 million directly into local banks. This enhancement further expands their global payment capabilities into Japan, creating opportunities for global businesses to capture new opportunities across the markets. The launch follows their recent fundraising round of US$20 million Series B led by WI Harper Group. EMQ was also accepted into Taiwan’s Regulatory Sandbox by the Financial Supervisory Commission in Taiwan. “Japan, the third-largest economy in the world, is an important market…

In July 2019, the Financial Supervisory Commission of Taiwan (FSC) gave its approval for the establishment of three virtual banks, though none of them have launched yet. Line Bank, a consortium led by Japan’s Line, was amongst the three companies to receive the green light. Line Bank will target Taiwan’s retail banking market with a particular focus on consumers in the Line ecosystem. It will be offering them an array of conventional financial services such as deposits, loans, payments, and insurance, as well as some innovative services such as bill-splitting and tourism advice. Line Bank will be entering the market…

Ground X, the blockchain affiliate of South Korean mobile platform Kakao, has launched its global Blockchain-as-a-Service (BaaS) to empower enterprises and developers to build and operate blockchain services. KAS, short for Klaytn API Service, is the Blockchain-as-a-Service to utilise Klaytn, the public blockchain platform developed by Ground X. KAS provides a set of Application Programming Interfaces that streamline the process of building and operating blockchain applications in a cloud environment. Developers can use the Klaytn network without installing a separate node to reduce development cost and period. Aimed at speeding and simplifying enterprises’ journey to using Klaytn, KAS can be…

Diginex, a Hong Kong-based digital assets financial services company, announced that it has started listing and trading on Nasdaq. The cryptocurrency exchange operator said that it had completed its business combination transaction with 8i Enterprises Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). The transaction is said to be the first listed company on Nasdaq with a cryptocurrency exchange. Diginex will trade on Nasdaq under the ticker symbol “EQOS” where it will offer investors the opportunity to participate in the growth of digital assets. Its warrants will trade under the ticker “EQOSW”. Approximately US$50 million was raised, comprising both Diginex’s…

Though robo-advisors are relatively new in China, they are rapidly rising in popularity, with now roughly 38% of adult Internet users using automated, algorithm-driven financial planning services, according to 2020 survey from Kagan, a research division within S&P Global Market Intelligence. Interest is also high amongst non-users, with 68% expressing some level of interest in using robo-advisors, the study found. The study, which surveyed 1,000 adult Internet users in China, found that users of robo-advisors tend to be younger, more educated and living in the city. 49% of robo-advisors users are aged below 39, 68% have a tertiary education, and…

Ant Group has unveiled Trusple, a blockchain based-platform powered by AntChain to help SMEs with cross-border trade. Trusple aims to make it easier and less costly for all participants, especially Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs), to sell their products and services to customers around the world. It also reduces costs for financial institutions so that they can better serve SMEs in need. Based on the concept of “Trust Made Simple,” Trusple works by generating a smart contract once a buyer and a seller upload a trading order on the platform. As the order is executed, the smart contract is automatically…

Airwallex, a cross border payment company, announced that the company has closed its extended Series D fundraising with an additional US$40 million from new and existing investors. This builds on the Hong Kong-based fintech unicorn’s US$160 milion Series D round announced in April 2020, bringing its total Series D funding to US$200 million and total equity funding raised to date to over US$400 million. The additional funds raised will enable Airwallex to invest in the continual build of its product suite, to strengthen its existing footprint in key regions such as Asia Pacific and UK/Europe, and to expand its global…

Ant Bank, part of Ant Group, has officially launched to offer banking services to Hong Kong citizens. Ant Bank was one of the 8 recipients of the virtual banking license by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), this launch makes it the 6th virtual bank to launch their services in Hong Kong. This launch is ahead of the group’s mega-IPO which they aim for it to be the biggest listing in history. Ant Bank is hardly the financial giant’s first attempt at a digital bank. It also co-owns MyBank, one of the first virtual lenders in Mainland China. Individuals can…

US-headquartered blockchain firm ConsenSys has been granted the lead for the second phase of Project Inthanon-LionRock, a cross-border payment network study project by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA). Previously, HKMA and the Bank of Thailand (BOT) had signed a Memorandum of Understanding in May 2019, initiating Project Inthanon-LionRock to study the application of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) for cross-border payments. The project was completed in December 2019 and a distributed ledger technology-based proof-of-concept (PoC) prototype was developed with 10 participating banks from both regions. Key findings of the report was published on HKMA and BOT websites. Now, ConsenSys…

Ant Group, yesterday officially launched its much-talked about inaugural INCLUSION Fintech Conference both to a live audience and virtually. The first day of the conference began with a morning plenary session, followed by 17 forums in the afternoon and a nature-themed music festival along Shanghai’s iconic Huangpu River in the evening. The conference welcomed prominent speakers from all corners of the world, including representatives from the United Nations and the International Monetary Fund, as well as Nobel Prize-winning scholars, to participate in a wide-ranging conversation on how digital technology can help build a more inclusive, green, and sustainable world. An…

At the 2020 Huawei Developer Conference held earlier this week, fintech influencer, best-selling author, and entrepreneur Brett King joined the finance tech.session to talk about the role of technology to improve financial inclusion and shared his views on how banking will look like in the years to come. In light of this, AppGallery has been growing rapidly as it pushes to onboard more financial partners and attract banking apps from different regions. In particular, the app marketplace is seeing strong demand coming from users looking for apps that allow users to manage their finances with their local banks and financial…

Mox has officially launched to the general public in Hong Kong. Mox is the virtual bank created by Standard Chartered in partnership with PCCW, HKT and Trip.com, which provides its suite of fully digital retail banking services over its app. The virtual bank had a brand launch back in March this year followed by an external pilot where a handful of select customers were invited to use its banking services to help them refine their offerings before the official launch. Deniz Güven, CEO of Mox, said: “We are so excited to welcome everyone in Hong Kong to Mox. We designed…

From September 10 to 12, 2020, Huawei Consumer Business Group (BG) held the annual Huawei Developer Conference. Themed HDC.Together, the event saw multiple announcements being made, including the launch of new products, as well as updates on the Huawei Mobile Services (HMS) ecosystem. Huawei’s developer community and app ecosystem The HMS ecosystem has grown to now counting some 1.8 million developers worldwide, doubling that of last year’s Huawei Developer Conference. This figure makes the HMS ecosystem the third largest mobile ecosystem in the world, Zhang Ping’an, president of consumer cloud service at the Huawei Consumer Business Group, said during his…

Neat, a Hong Kong-based financial technology startup, announced its partnership with Snowflake, a cloud data platform. Under the new partnership, Neat will utilise Snowflake’s cloud data platform to integrate their data into a single source for data harmonisation, enabling business teams to leverage data insights. Neat is best known as a payment solutions provider, serves SMEs in Asia and Europe by offering access to financial tools such as foreign exchange, online account opening, and corporate cards for fast and efficient international and multi-currency transactions. To enhance customer experience, and as a digital only company, Neat adopted Snowflake’s cloud data platform to…

A recent report published by consulting firm EPAM Continuum outlined behaviors, expectations and motivations, with key findings suggesting that, despite recent innovations in financial services, the fundamental behavioral drivers of customers remain largely unchanged. The report surveyed 4,500 people across key banking regions including the United Kingdom, the United States, Hong Kong and Singapore. The report said that for any radical change to happen, banks need to become more ubiquitous and have the ability to seamlessly integrate with the platforms and services that make up their customers’ personal digital ecosystem in order to bring banking to them – not the…