This is not new rhetoric: most of us only ever heard of blockchain when cryptocurrency hit critical mass, particularly during the infamous Bitcoin bull of 2017. The same idea was expressed during the Internet Economic Summit 2019, a two-day event held earlier this week at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Center (HKCEC). One of the topics discussed during the fintech forum was “The Future of Trade Finance — Smart Contract with Blockchain”, that called in blockchain advocates from differing blockchain backgrounds to offer their thoughts. One of the panelists, Steven Lee of Hong Kong’s trustMe blockchain provider, opines that…

As part of its overarching grand plan to boost fintech in Korea, the Financial Services Commission of Korea announced the first batch of financial services providers into its financial regulatory sandbox. Among 19 applications shortlisted for priority review, 9 firms were first allowed to test their innovative services and products in the regulatory sandbox. For the remaining 10 applications, the FSC will soon decide whether to accept them into the regulatory sandbox at its meeting scheduled for May 2, 2019. Below are an overview of the companies and commercial activities permitted to experiment within the sandbox Root Energy Root Energy…

Futu Securities a Hong Kong based wealthtech firm recently bagged the “Digital Brokerage of the Year” award at The Asset Triple A Digital Awards 2018. Founded in 2012, Futu Securities is recognised by many as one of Asia’s top-ranked online brokers. The wealthtech firm recently also made it Fintech News Hong Kong’s “Top 20 Fintech Startups in Hong Kong” list The Asset Triple A Awards 2018 is an annual ceremony that has been held for 20 years to recognize financial institutions and technology firms that have excelled in innovating and developing a unique digital experience for customers. Over 627 companies…

Though relatively small when compared with the likes of China and Singapore, South Korea’s fintech industry has witnessed significant growth in the past years with now some 400 fintech companies present in the country. The ecosystem’s rapid development has been largely driven by government initiatives aimed at establishing a favorable environment for financial innovation. The Financial Services Commission (FSC), South Korea’s financial regulator, announced in 2018 that fintech startups would be exempted from regulations for two years if their apps or services are determined to be “innovative.” The regulator is now working on a financial regulatory sandbox, set to launch…

Taiwan has been trying to gain a foothold for itself as a fintech hub, but despite their best response from the industry is still mixed But Taiwan if anything, is at least earnest in its efforts, it recently approved EMQ as the first startup to join its regulatory sandbox. Marking the first step and long and difficult journey to cement their position in the world of fintech. In order for Taiwan advance, it’ll need success stories that it can wear as a badge of honour, as such we felt it would be useful to have a look at some of the…

WeLab has been granted a virtual banking license by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (“HKMA”), becoming the first homegrown Hong Kong fintech company to establish a virtual bank. This brings the total number of approved virtual banking players in Hong Kong to 4. The previous approvals were granted to what is largely considered to be incumbents, consisting of companies backed by the likes Bank of China, Standard Chartered and ZhongAn Insurance. The current lending industry in Hong Kong is an oligopoly that is dominated by 3 banks namely, HSBC, Standard Chartered and Bank of China which takes up a total…

London-based design company Burgopak has just been awarded for their excellence in industry challenging packaging design at the 2019 ICMA Élan Awards in Orlando, Florida—an award to cast a spotlight on the best of the best in the global transaction card industry. Out of three entries by the same company for contention, the MCO Visa card (pictured below) netted Burgopak an award of excellence in the Personalization & Fulfilment category for innovative packaging designs. The card showcases a unique hexagonal design and what is characterised as “powerful consumer touch points”. The victory was gained after stiff competition with hundreds of…

China continues to be the world’s undisputed fintech leader, with about 600 deals completed in 2018 and a fintech adoption rate of 69%, the highest in the world, according to EY’s 2017 Financial Technology Adoption Index. Out of the world’s top eight companies that invested heavily in fintech in 2018, five of them are from China with Ant Financial coming in first with US$14 billion in fundraising. The fintech boom in China has been largely driven by the lack of traditional banking services, unmet financial needs of ordinary people and small and micro enterprises, and the huge amount of Chinese…

36Kr, a Chinese company operating a media platform covering startups and technology in China, is planning an initial public offering (IPO) in the US as soon as this year and is targeting to raise at least US$100 million, people with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg. Deliberations are still at an early stage and details of the offering and listing venue could change, according to the same report. 36Kr’s CEO and founder Liu Chengcheng told Bloomberg that the company is open to exploring opportunities in the capital market and does not have a specific IPO timeline. Often referred to the…

The virtual banking race is on for different regions across the globe, and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has put its hat in that race with the virtual banking license, as part of a larger plan to turn Hong Kong into a smart city. To that end, HKMA announced three recipients of the coveted license that allows licensees to offer a full-range of banking services without needing to set up any physical branches. However, Hong Kong’s iteration of this license is not without its controversy. Now, another rejected applicant for Hong Kong’s virtual banking license has broken their silence…

Despite its meteoric rise in popularity, cryptocurrency has yet to gain global mainstream adoption. Crypto.com, a Hong Kong-based startup, is attempting to change that and it is doing so through three of its key products. Multi-currency Wallet and Pre-paid Visa Card One of the company’s key products is the MCO Visa Card, a card with no annual or monthly fees that allows customers to easily and conveniently spend their cryptocurrencies after converting these into fiat money. The card is tied to a multi-currency digital wallet that enables its users to track their finances, cryptocurrency prices, and trade cryptocurrencies. While it…

James Lau, Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau (FSTB) in a letter to the President said that misleading cryptocurrency activity is subject to a HK$500,000 fine or five years prison time. The following actions by virtual currency traders are prohibited under the Trade Descriptions Ordinance (TDO) that passed in 2012—false trade descriptions, misleading omissions, aggressive commercial practices, bait advertising, bait-and-switch and wrongly accepting payments. The statement was made regarding the sale of mining machines or other products related to virtual assets, due to the variety of fraudulent activities happening in the Hong Kong market right now. Enforcement of the TDO…

InvestHK recently dropped hints that we should be expecting a significant expansion of the annual Hong Kong Fintech Week. Anticipating to pull in a larger audience than last year’s 8,000 attendees, the agency stated they needed to host the event in a bigger venue. Hong Fintech Week 2019 now in its fourth year will be held at AsiaWorld Expo from the 4th to the 8th of November and is expected to feature a larger variety of programmmes. Recent initiatives by the HKMA will ranging from the issuance of 3 virtual banking licenses, open API framework and the launch of the…

The fintech startup Neat, a digital banking alternative, has been granted a Money Lender’s License in Hong Kong, which marks their first step in their pursuit of global financial regulation. The move also marks Neat’s full turn away from virtual banking license that has been hotly discussed in Hong Kong’s fintech scene—and has most recently been granted to three licensees, including companies affiliated with ZhongAn and Standard Chartered. Neat is also applying for a Money Service Operator (MSO) license, and a Trust and Corporate Service Provider license (TCSP) license, soon to be followed by a HKMA license in Hong Kong. Neat’s…

P2P lending and digital lending has been on the rise lately, with many countries moving to regulate the space. Conventional digital lending has been met with far less controversy than its counterpart P2P lending. While P2P lending has been created in the spirit making it easier to access capital and as an alternative form of investment, it has morphed into something quite ugly of late. The poster boy of that is of course China, with hundreds of platform crashing and leaving many of its user stranded. In some instances it destroyed the lives of some families and tragically even led…

The Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong(SFC) issued a statement today on the Security Token Offerings (STO) regulations in Hong Kong. STOs typically involve the us Security Tokens which are digital representations of ownership of assets (eg, gold or real estate) or economic rights (eg, a share of profits or revenue) utilising blockchain technology. The regulator emphasized STOs in most cases are subject to the securities laws of token due to its nature. As such the Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong stressed that it is a criminal offense for any individual to issue STOs without regulatory approval.…

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) announced today that three companies have been granted virtual banking licences: Livi VB, SC Digital, and ZhongAn Virtual Finance. As rumoured in our previous report, some of the companies granted licenses are joint ventures that include ZhongAn Online (tied with ZhongAn Virtual Finance), Bank of China (co-owner of Livi VB) and SC Digital (Standard Chartered) According to their business plans, these three newly licensed virtual banks intend to launch their services within 6 to 9 months, and thus, bring the grand total of licensed operational banks in Hong Kong to 155. The virtual bank license was announced by…

Airwallex, a cross border payment company announced today that they have closed Series C fund raising at $US 100 million. The round brings Airwallex’s total capital raised to over US$200 million.  With that Airwallex is now valued at over $US 1 billion, confirming its position as a newly minted fintech unicorn alongside 9 other fintech unicorns in Asia. Headquartered in Hong Kong and founded in Melbourne the cross-border payments company has an illustrious list of clientele which includes the likes of JD.com, Tencent and Mastercard. Its meteoric rise from an emerging challenger to a fintech unicorn in three year is…

While Sweden is trialling inserting microchips into its citizens as a new way to pay, China is opting for a less invasive method — your face. In Shenzhen, a local subway operator is testing several advanced technologies powered by the 5G network, including facial recognition payments, according to a report by the South China Morning Post. At the Futian station, instead of presenting a ticket or scanning a QR bar code on their smartphones, commuters are now able to scan their faces on a tablet-sized screen mounted on the entrance gate and have the fare automatically deducted from their linked…

TNG Fintech Group has just teamed up with Visa to launch TNG Wallet-integrated solutions into six markets across Asia. The goal of this move is to capitalise on areas with growing digital wallet traction. They officially revealed their partnership during Money 20/20 Asia in Singapore. TNG Wallet is eyeing launch of prepaid solutions into Southeast Asian markets, primarily Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. The partnership’s solutions are reportedly geared towards enabling secure payments for the underserved and unbanked segments in the region, and it aims to do so by offering Visa-powered payments via the TNG Wallet. Alipay and WeChat…