When you bring up blockchain with enthusiasts nowadays, the tone of conversations usually involves them making excuses for cryptocurrency, and a plea to not let that stain your impression of the underlying blockchain technology. This is a marked shift in mindset from just one year ago, when there were excited whispers about cryptocurrency potentially replacing fiat currencies altogether. The global obsession with cryptocurrencies have cooled somewhat, but Hong Kong still serves as a hotbed of activity and seen as one of the world’s premier trading regions—particularly so once the mainland decreed cryptocurrency as illegal. Hong Kong is also the home…

Hangzhou, one of China’s top fintech hubs, is pushing for blockchain innovation. Xu Liyi, mayor of Hangzhou city, has listed blockchain development into the official government report and several initiatives have been undertaken by the government to nurture a healthy blockchain ecosystem. The Hangzhou government said in April that it would invest in a 10 billion yuan (US$1.6 billion) blockchain fund. At the opening ceremony of the Blockchain Industrial Park, it said it would invest 30%, or 3 billion yuan, in the fund along with Tulan Investment, a venture capital company. The fund, which claims to be the world’s biggest…

Ping An Insurance delivered Hong Kong’s first blockchain-based international trade finance platform, eTradeConnect. The platform was initiated by seven founding banks in Hong Kong and facilitated by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA). Leveraging blockchain’s distributed ledger technology, financial institutions will potentially be able to access real-time, secure and comprehensive trade information to conduct their risk assessment on loans. The hope is that similar processes will become more efficient, and potentially reduce financial costs for companies by digitalising trade documents in trade loan applications. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority announced the official launch of eTradeConnect, initially connecting 12 joining banks…

Over the years, Taiwan has remained rather open to blockchain and cryptocurrency, at least compared to its fellow Northeast Asia countries such as China and Korea. While they were originally criticized for lacking any regulation in the Fintech markets, and struggled to embrace emerging technologies in the past, they have – especially in the recent years – assertively made their stance clear on becoming the world’s next blockchain island (much like Malta). On August 29, 2018, Taiwan Legislator and Congressman, Jason Hsu, came out and expressed his desired plan to establish the small nation as a crypto-centric one. Since then,…

Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP) announced new initiatives, enhanced programmes and support services aimed at strengthening and accelerating the growth of Hong Kong’s tech sector, with a particular focus on startups. These new measures are the first phase of roll-outs utilising the HK$10 billion funding provided by the HKSAR Government. Programmes to Tackle Startup Needs at Different Phases Some of the new programmes include a new seed funding initiative called the “Science and Technology Entrepreneur Programme” (STEP) to provide financial support for budding start-ups and young technopreneurs with disruptive ideas that need a bit of help turning…

From Singapore to Korea, the Republic of Korea continues to make moves at becoming a hub in the digital finance and fintech blockchain space. Thus, it is no wonder that a plethora of Fintech start-ups emerges month after month. It seems as if there is constant news about the government standing at a crossroads with advancing financial technologies into society. From start-ups like AIZEN (a Korean Fintech startup that aims at automating Big Data analysis and learns in real time) to bigger corporations like Shinhan Bank, 2018 has made it evident that Fintech is on the inevitable rise. With that…

Citi Hong Kong has launched Citi Live Chat, which enables the bank’s relationship managers to interact with their Citigold Private Client (CPC) and Citigold customers more conveniently, without needing third-party platforms like WeChat. The platform allows customers to connect with their relationship managers through text, audio or video The platform is accessible after login to Citibank online banking and Citi Mobile App platforms. The platform can also be used to conduct portfolio reviews, and is enabled by screen sharing for documents, and the ability to share files and links. This development follows Citi’s report that Hong Kong had a million…

It’s a well known fact that the cards network sector is dominated by the Visa and Mastercard duopoly. If you live outside of China, a quick glance into your wallet will likely prove that fact. Enter UnionPay, established in 2002 it is fast establishing itself as the new giant in the game. It initially gain strength thanks to its monopoly in domestic payments in China. However, it is progressively growing out of its Chinese shadows as the third largest in terms of transaction value behind Mastercard and Visa and the largest card network in the world. Recent announcement from UnionPay…

Hong Kong-based challenger bank Neat, announced a US$3 million funding round led by China-based VC Linear Capital, an early stage venture focusing on data-driven startups. This brings the total funding raised by Neat this year to US$5 million. Existing investors including Dymon Asia Ventures and Portag3 Ventures also participated in the latest round, as well as Hong Kong-based Sagamore Investments. Neat’s virtual bank claims to offer more flexibility than the traditional corporate bank accounts. The bank offers a dedicated Hong Kong account number from across the globe, and even includes Mastercard debit cards. Signups can be made anywhere across the…

From October 29 to November 02, 2018, Hong Kong will be hosting its third annual Hong Kong Fintech Week. This year’s event will be the world’s first cross-border fintech event, spotlighting not just Hong Kong, but the whole Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. More than 200 fintech founders, in addition to regulators, investors and academics, are expected to attend this year’s event, and since five days is surely not enough to connect with everyone there, we’ve made a list of some of the biggest names in the industry so you can maximize your time: Eric Jing, CEO at Ant…

Blockchain-based startup SophiaTX establishes a presence in Chengdu, which is said to be one of the fastest growing cities in China. Chengdu has been described as one of the hot new startup hubs to emerge since 2017, thanks to rapid economic development which also happens to skew towards tech. The region also has ambitions towards becoming the finance hub of China. Some of the more notable startups hailing for Chengdu include Codoon, internationally-known Camera 360 and Tower, among others. Beyond just homegrown startups though, with a Chinathat is opening up to foreign talent, opinions have been floating that Chengdu could be…

Following the rollout of Open Banking regulations in the UK and the launch this year of the EU’s Payment Services Directive 2 (PSD2), countries across the Asia-Pacific region are following suit to establish their own frameworks to enable banks to share select customer data with third-party providers (TPPs), and TPPs to run transactions on customer accounts. Following a public consultation, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) in July 2018 published a four-phase approach to implement Open Banking in the city. Phase 1 covers “read-only” product and service information, useful for services like comparison sites; phase 2 covers new applications and…

The Chinese retail industry is entering a “new retail” era, characterized by the widespread use of technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and big data to digitalize the entire value chain, according to PwC. China is the world’s biggest consumer market with total retail sales in Q1 2018 reaching US$1,436 billion, up by 9.8% year-on-year. China’s retail market is forecast to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 9% from 2017 to 2021. China is also the world’s biggest e-commerce market with online sales in Q1 2018 reaching US$307.4 billion, an increase of 35.4% year-on-year. According to a PwC…

CLSA, capital markets and investment group in Asia launches AlphaLabs to provide early investing or help in developing early-stage fintech startups they deem disruptive. CLSA is affiliated with China’s CITIC Group, a state-owned investment company. This decision comes from CLSA’s three-decade experience in the region’s financial services sector. The key for AlphaLabs though, are transformative ideas and tech like artificial intelligence, automation, big data, blockchain, cybersecurity, digital assets and reg tech which to the new accelerator, are increasingly dislocating all aspects of the financial services industry. CLSA CEO Jonathan Slone said: “The financial services industry is going through an unprecedented period of technological…

This year’s Discover Advanced Trends in E-Commerce Expo (DATE) event, which was held last month in Taipei, showcased the latest innovations in e-commerce and fintech and gathered some of the world’s key players on the global scene. Organized by the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA) in association with the Taiwan Internet and E-Commerce Association, Chinese Non-Store Retailer Association, and the Taiwan Association of Logistics Management, this year’s DATE event focused on smart retail, cross-border e-commerce, social media marketing, mobile commerce, and innovation in e-commerce. DATE 2018, which took place between September 27 and 29, 2018 at the Taipei World…

Ground X, the blockchain subsidiary Kakao, often likened to the Korean version of WeChat; has announced the launch of the Testnet version of Klaytn. This move follows the trend of messaging apps going into blockchain with companies like Line launching it’s own cryptocurrency Klaytn UX seeks to improve the UX of existing blockchain platforms by eliminating traditional inconveniences such as wallets, private keys, and cryptograph addresses in order to lower the barriers to blockchain technology for end-users. GroundX claims to have enhanced speed and for the performance of the dApps (decentralized applications), which are readily available for mass users. According to…

Invoice financing company Capital Match, and SME current account platform Neat, announce a stronger partnership. Through this collaboration, both parties hope to provide more cost-effective account management and financing services geared towards SMEs in Hong Kong through their collaboration. Established in 2014,  Singapore-based Capital Match to date has helped SMEs in its hometown and Hong Kong to secure over US$ 78m (HK$ 600m) of funding, according to a press release. Its value proposition: it is difficult for SMEs to borrow enough from banks, which could lead to cash flow issues for SMEs with a smaller runway. Capital Match aims to fix these…

Hong Kong, an international finance center, has put a lot of effort into becoming a leading fintech hub. Today, the special administrative region is home to 48 of the world’s top 100 fintech companies, over 40 incubator and accelerator programs, and no less than three fintech sandboxes that allow financial institutions and startups to test innovative solutions. Hong Kong is also the number one location in Asia in terms of smartphone penetration, ­­­the fifth fastest growing startup ecosystem in the world, and the world’s leader when it comes to fintech adoption. Among the industry participants driving the fintech revolution in…

It is often said that fintech is one of the most regulated tech sectors in the world, and for good reason. There are dire consequences to any developing tech going wrong (Facebook’s recent privacy scandal comes to mind), but straits are particularly dire when it comes to money. Fintech regulation then becomes a tightrope act—how do we regulate an industry enough to protect its people, while still allowing enough room for it to grow? This is a problem that even the biggest fintech hubs are still struggling with, not excluding our very own. Arthur Yuen, Deputy Chief Executive, Hong Kong Monetary…

Open banking is gaining traction globally fueled by regulations like the EU’s PSD2 and the UK’s CMA Open Banking, a combination of banks’ internal efforts and market initiatives. Open banking refers to the use of open Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that enable developers to build applications and services around financial institutions. APIs are a set of rules that govern how one piece of computer software communicates with another. If adopted, these enable banks’ customers to share their personal financial information with third parties to generate opportunities for better deals on financial products and to compare products more easily. From the…