Pan-European payments provider SIX and Chinese mobile payments pioneer Alipay respond to a major retail trend by planning to support merchants in tapping into the potential of millions of new customers. Users of the popular Chinese payment App Alipay will soon be able to pay at SIX payment terminals across Europe. SIX Payment Services and Alipay, the third-party payment and lifestyle platform operated by Ant Financial Services Group, announced their close cooperation for the acceptance of POS and E- Commerce payments across Europe. Under the terms of the agreement, Alipay’s payment service will be integrated into the payment application of…

Neat, a neo-bank in Hong Kong, will start releasing invites to its app at its beta events on December 07, 08 and 13. Announced earlier this year, the new service promises a new banking experience that is entirely digital targeted at millennials. “We started building Neat because lots of people aren’t getting the help they deserve when it comes to managing their finances,” the company says. “Especially young people get ignored by traditional financial institutions – because they are unprofitable customers. As a result, there are very few products that serve their needs. So we set out to make a…

World Marketing Congress has awarded this year’s Top 100 Most Influential Global Marketing Leaders Award to Jack Cheng today. The award is set to be presented to Mr. Cheng on 24th of November in India at the third edition of the World Marketing Congress Awards. The ceremony is taking place on 24th and 25th November 2016 at Taj Lands End, Mumbai. Jack Cheng is the Head of Marketing at ANX INTERNATIONAL, an Industrial Giant in the Fintech and Blockchain spaces. This award is a global recognition of the achievements. Jack Cheng is the only marketer from Hong Kong receiving the…

Societe Generale announces a new agreement with Smartkarma, a curated online platform for investment insight focused on the Asian markets. Under this global agreement, Societe Generale will provide its institutional clients access to a new form of equity research based on demand driven and customised content provided by the industry’s highly ranked analysts, academics, data scientists and strategists. Societe Generale is the first  investment bank to have an agreement with an emerging fintech company to provide equity research that is compliant with evolving research unbundling requirements, such as MiFID II. Smartkarma’s rapidly growing platform currently provides access to over 100 investment…

Asia Pacific is leading the world in mobile payment with over half (53%) of connected consumers using their mobiles to pay for goods or services at point of sale via apps, in comparison to 33% in North America and 35% in Europe. Rising mobile penetration is a clear driver, with the number of smartphone users across Asia Pacific now numbering over a billion[i]. In addition, the evolution of Asian chat apps to include payment options and the lack of legacy banking structures in the region have accelerated the uptake of the behaviour amongst consumers. According to Connected Life, the latest…

Hong Kong’s leading international financial hub and proximity to China have driven the development of the city’s fintech sector, propelling Hong Kong to the rank of the world’s top fifth fintech hubs in the world, according to Deloitte. The government of Hong Kong has placed fintech as one of its top priorities, announcing in September a Fintech Innovation Hub as well as regulatory sandbox aimed at spurring banks to embrace technology. “Technology has provided many new and very convenient means to conduct financial transactions, ranging from the basic payment and banking services to the more sophisticated trading and investment activities,”…

CREST has announced that it is collaborating with the Hong Kong Institute of Bankers (HKIB) and the Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute (ASTRI) to deliver its high-level cybersecurity accreditations and examinations across Hong Kong from December 2016. CREST provides internationally recognised accreditation for organisations and individuals providing penetration testing, cyber incident response and threat intelligence services. From December, CREST will be working closely with both HKIB and ASTRI to develop tailored assurance programmes aligned to the needs of the dynamic Hong Kong market. Rowland Johnson, director of CREST international, commented: “We are delighted to be working…

Adyen, the payments company powering global commerce for Uber, Facebook and Netflix amongst others, today announced that it has added WeChat Pay to its portfolio of local payments methods. It’s the first major payment service provider to integrate WeChat Pay into its offering on a global scale – providing businesses with access to 400 million Chinese shoppers. China is at the forefront of the revolution in mobile payments that is powering global ecommerce growth. 15% of China’s total population is expected to make a cross-border purchase by the end of 2016 – amounting to $86 billion in transaction value. By…

The inaugural Hong Kong Fintech Week (November 7 to 11) attracted more than 2 500 participants and an array of international financial technologies (Fintech) companies and start-ups looking to grow their business, as well as accelerators, incubators and investors searching for opportunities and innovation. The week saw more than 100 Fintech experts share their experience and insights on Fintech at events held at PMQ and across the city, all supported hosted by the Hong Kong Government. With support from the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), along with Accenture, Cyberport, Finnovasia, the Hong Kong…

CompareAsiaGroup, a leading financial comparison service in Southeast Asia, is about to raise US$25 million from the World Bank Group’s private equity arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC). The IFC said in the filing that the proposed investment in CompareAsiaGroup “aligns with IFC’s contribution to the World Bank Group goals by addressing access gaps to financial services through the use of financial technology.” It continued: “The company’s service will not only improve financial literacy to a broader audience but will also contribute to lowering cost of financial services and products in the market by increasing competitive pressure in the sector and help…

In Hong Kong, the government has encouraged fintech and insurtech innovation, which it believes will be a key enabler in designing better and more efficient work processes and new business models that will deliver higher growth, cost savings and better services for industry participants. In a report released in October, Baker and McKenzie points out that although Hong Kong is still a relatively nascent, emerging fintech and insurtech hub when compared to most established players such as London and New York, recent government initiatives and increased marketing have helped raised awareness of fintech and insurtech. In 2015, the Hong Kong…

US travel tech company KAYAK Software Corporation announced that it has set up KAYAK Asia Pacific Limited in Hong Kong as the group’s local headquarters to strengthen its foothold in the Asia Pacific (APAC) region amid strong demand. KAYAK searches other travel sites to help travellers find information on the right flights, hotels, rental cars and vacation packages. It also offers a variety of travel planning and trip management tools including price forecasts based on historical data and trips, price alerts and itinerary management. The group started in the US in 2004 and launched in Asia in 2013. It currently has…

WeLab, one of China’s largest mobile lending and credit analytics platforms, is leveraging further into traditional financial institutions’ war chests to grow its capability to issue loans. They have entered a partnership with several financial institutions in China, including Guangdong Nanyue Bank and Jinshang Consumer Finance, to provide loans below RMB500,000 (US$73,730) ticket size for customers in the mainland. This follows WeLab securing a credit facility of US$25 million from ING Bank in September, with plans for a syndication loan to raise another US$50 million for its Hong Kong operations by the year’s end. “I think it is a strong…

As an indication of the rising FinTech trends in Asia, wealth management, regulatory technology (RegTech), artificial intelligence, cybersecurity and blockchain were the areas with the most compelling submissions for the 2017 SuperCharger FinTech Accelerator 2.0 programme, Hong Kong’s 12-week FinTech accelerator programme sponsored by Standard Chartered Bank and Fidelity International. For a second year running, SuperCharger, which aims to help the most promising start-ups and scale-ups grow in Asia, has surpassed other Hong Kong FinTech accelerators with almost 200 applicants from 33 countries from which 8 finalists were selected. Mr Shameek Kundu, Standard Chartered’s Global Head of…

Hong Kong’s long-established financial center, burgeoning startup scene and developed business center connecting Mainland China with global markets, have made the location one of the world’s top fintech hubs in world. Deloitte has ranked Hong Kong as the fifth leading fintech hubs in 2016, ahead of South Korea, Switzerland and Frankfurt. According to the audit firm, Hong Kong has the natural branding of Asia’s largest financial center, providing an immediate attraction for fintech. The location’s position as Asia’s super connector is particularly attractive for B2B solutions and its historical proximity to China makes it hard for other hubs to displace…

HSBC and the Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute (ASTRI) launched a research and development innovation laboratory on Monday, the latest in a series of initiatives to boost the development of financial technology (fintech) in the city. The hope is that collaboration between HSBC and ASTRI will develop solutions to real problems that affect the bank and its customers. These include development of advanced authentication technologies, cyber security protection and behavioural biometrics using artificial intelligence technologies. Peter Wong, chief executive and deputy chairman of HSBC, said at the launch ceremony that technology comprised all areas of the bank’s…

Smartkarma, the premier provider of collaborative solutions for investment research, has announced the official opening of its Hong Kong office. Building on recent international expansion and significant platform growth, the Hong Kong office will provide ongoing support for Smartkarma’s network of insight providers and clients focused on the Asian markets. “Hong Kong is an obvious choice for Smartkarma as we continue our global expansion, given its role as a key financial hub for Asia,” says Raghav Kapoor, CEO and Co-Founder, Smartkarma. “In particular, Hong Kong strengthens our offering in the equity space, a focus area for many of our Insight…

Hong Kong is the number one business city in Asia. It is the perfect base for companies that want to do business in Mainland China and across the region. Hong Kong will host its first Fintech Week in early November to position the city as the premier centre in Asia for Fintech companies and start-ups as well as for accelerators, incubators and investors searching for Fintech innovation, Invest Hong Kong announced. Secretary for Financial Services & the Treasury Prof KC Chan, together with 400 guests, attended a launch event in which InvestHK announced the programme details. Hong Kong Fintech Week…

There are many talks about “Digital Transformation” recently, but what does it really mean, and why is it called a disruption? Depending on how you perceive it, this term may be just a fad to you, or it may mean the beginning of an outright evolution in your company. An article by Vincent Leung, an internationally experienced Digital Marketing and Communications expert who has held digital strategy presentations in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Paris. Currently, Vincent is in charge of BNP Paribas’ Group digital branding and content strategies in Asia Pacific. Instead of only using the usual technical perspective to see…

The pace of global change in financial services continues to accelerate as market incumbents, emerging FinTech startups and newcomers of every kind try to offer more sophisticated yet convenient means of moving money. Nowhere is this trend more apparent than in Hong Kong; the city that prides itself on being the financial gateway to the rest of China as well as a hugely influential international finance hub in its own right. An emerging shift in financial and economic influencing factors means that Hong Kong’s status as the primary financial hub in China is under threat from the rest of the mainland,…