Asia is traditionally a region with low insurance penetration, and Hong Kong was no exception to that rule. Between 2012 – 2016, Hong Kong’s insurance penetration changed from 12.4% of the population to a 17.6% of the population—a significant increase considering, but definitely well below ideal insured rates. This is partly because many Hong Kongers turn to the public healthcare system when their health fails, leading to overtax of the system. A primarily cash-based society didn’t help matters either. Hong Kong had a Real Need for Insurtech There’s always the biggest driver, like wanting to reduce the middlemen costs to have agents,…

The Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Industry Cooperation Zone or the Qianhai Special Economic Zone, is an experimental commercial development in Shenzhen set up to encourage foreign investment in modern industries. It is emerging as one of China’s biggest centers for financial innovation. Over 59,000 financial firms had been set up in the zone by the end of April 2018, according to China Daily. The special economic zone covers nearly 15 square kilometers and falls within the city limits of Shenzhen, one of the most productive cities economically in China. The zone, which is expected to be completed by 2020,…

The Fintech Association of Hong Kong has released a new report exploring the Greater Bay Area (GBA)’s cities, policies, and fintech landscape. The report, gives an overview of the GBA’s demographics, fintech companies, projects and goals, including policy and regulatory initiatives, ambitions for capital markets and funding, and the region’s supporting ecosystem for fintech. The research aims to educate stakeholders, and formulates recommendations for industry’s future development, providing advice on how the region can achieve success going forward. The Greater Bay Area The GBA consists of nine cities and two special administrative regions in south China: Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Foshan,…

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), is one of 17 global regulators that are participating in the Global Financial Innovation Network (GFIN) cross-border pilot tests—which has just shortlisted 8 fintechs. In total, 44 unique applications were submitted across the 17 participating regulators. The HKMA, like other regulators, are given the liberty to put these applicants through individual screening criteria, including consider whether they have the ability to support the activity. After this initial screening, the HKMA will continue to work with the 3 fintechs out of the 8 that have passed. Now, the fintech firms will have to develop testing plans…

In May last year, the Cathay Pacific Group, via its rewards programme Asia Miles, launched an app utilising smart contracts via blockchain. The campaign at the core of the new platform was a newly launched Asia Miles dining promotion in Hong Kong. Asia Miles members will have their miles credited to their accounts the following day, an unusual move from the usual months-long process for calculating miles before. Today, it’s now close to a year since Asia Miles has incorporated blockchain into its operations, and it has been an interesting journey of melding the regular call center-style operations Cathay Pacific…

After his blockchain panel at the Internet Economy Summit last week, we had a chance to sit down with trustMe, a local player in the blockchain scene with a focus on bringing the technology to SMEs in Hong Kong. Steven Lee, founder and CEO of trustMe, still had a lot to say about blockchain after presenting a whole panel on it. For one thing, Steven doesn’t think that fintech is going on a very fast track in Hong Kong yet, but it is getting more and more popular among the population. Blockchain is Still a Dirty Word Steven always focuses his…

Since president Xi Jinping announced a plan to gradually turn Hainan into a pilot free trade zone by 2020 and transform the location into a free trade port by the year 2025, Internet giants and fintech firms are flocking in. Hainan is the smallest and southernmost province of China, consisting of various islands in the South China Sea. Part of president Xi Jinping’s plan for the province involve attracting and encouraging foreign and multinational companies to set up their regional and international headquarters there and establishing exchanges in commodities and carbon trading, international energy, and shipping. An emphasis is being…

“Everything you do in a fintech startup, you’re likely testing the law, one way or another,” said Cyberport’s chairman Dr. Lee George Lam about fintech in the technology hub he stewards. “If you want to move out of the box, you’re probably going into a grey area or you’re infringing on some sort of established rule. So we have to give them guidance and give them the full information and let them have a channel to [give] feedback on their concerns and their suggestions so that the regulators can improve. During the Internet Economy Summit 2019 held in the Hong Kong…

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…