70% of Hongkongers said they have never paid for something using their smartphone, revealed a survey conducted by the Hong Kong Productivity Council in 2018. Despite the plethora of mobile payment options popping up in the city, on 23% surveyed by the HKIRC and Internet Society  said they use the cutting-edge methods. Mobile payment is essentially using a smartphone or smartwatch to pay for a product or service, or to send money in a few taps. This can be done through installed apps with a scannable barcode or QR code, or sometimes an electronic device using near-field-communication (NFC) technology. In…

South Korea is well-known as one of the most wired countries in the world with good education and a top global economy. First, a quick look at why Korean fintech startups have blossomed and then five startups to watch in 2019. Reasons Behind Korea’s Fintech Startup Rise Due to a large population of nearly 50 million people with 75% of the population residing in Seoul in high-rise apartments, the infrastructure is made for internet connectivity. Up until a few years ago however, Korea was not known as a startup hub. Cultural norms made it difficult for university students and businessmen…

China’s tech giants Alibaba and Tencent are going after global remittances, a market that sees more than US$600 billion being moved around the world annually, according to the World Bank. The two firms recently launched cross-border money transfer services to allow Hong Kong-based workers from Indonesia and the Philippines, who make up most of Hong Kong’s 370,000 domestic workers, to send money home cheaply and easily. WeChat Pay’s We Remit service became operational in Hong Kong in 2017, while Ant Financial’s venture, launched through its Alipay HK affiliate and based on blockchain technology, started transferring money between Hong Kong and…

When talking to South Koreans, the word “blockchain” has become a household buzzword. Most people have heard of it via the mainstream local media, especially when there was a massive fervor around bitcoin and cryptocurrencies towards the end of 2017. Ordinary citizens were struggling to make decent returns on their savings investments. Millennial & senior citizen unemployment rates were higher than usual. Thus, they turned towards cryptocurrencies as a way to “get rich quick” as people started to hear about how others received hefty profits on their Bitcoin and Ethereum investments. What followed was the start of a worldwide cryptocurrency…

Hong Kong, an international finance hub and technologically advanced center for logistics and communications, has been hard at work to develop a favorable environment for fintech innovation and startups. As a result, the ecosystem has grown significantly in the past years, and today, the city is home to some of the world’s hottest fintech startups. The following four infographics outline Hong Kong’s unique features as a fintech hub and showcase the city’s burgeoning fintech industry. Hong Kong as a fintech hub Hong Kong has got some key advantages when it comes to fintech. First off, the city is home to…

While the global cryptocurrency fervor has abated throughout the course of 2018 following bitcoin’s parabolic rise in the year prior, investors in South Korea into continue to trade cryptocurrencies via large cryptocurrency exchange gateways. In South Korea, there are a few major cryptocurrency exchanges that handle the majority of cryptocurrency trading volume for retail investors with spot trading due to regulations against margin trading. Institutional investment into the cryptocurrency side of the industry is also negligible as current South Korean regulations are in an ambiguous discovery phase but investment into blockchain companies is still going strong. South Korean investors tend…

Geoswift, UnionPay International and Western Union have recently offered a joint tuition payment promotion available to Chinese students studying at more than 600 academic institutions in 11 countries. The promotion is available only for Chinese students studying in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, France, Switzerland, Singapore, Japan, Czech Republic and Austria who choose to pay at least RMB 10,000. Eligible Chinese students studying abroad who pay their tuition in RMB are offered a complimentary Amazon gift card worth RMB 100, while supplies last. To be eligible, students will need to make a qualifying RMB payment by selecting…

The company that drove Uber out of China, Didi Chuxing, comes into the new year embroiled in controversy. About a month ago, Didi announced a major restructuring—the latest development in series of platform tweaks after it came out that the platform’s features had a hand in two separate passenger murder cases. The incidents have also caused regulators to descend upon the ride-hailing service with concerns for safety, as both instances highlighted some gaps in Didi’s driver management and authentication procedures. These security troubles follow a wide scale collapse of the bicycle-sharing industry, with ofo, a company that Didi hedged some huge…

According to the World Payments Report 2018 produced by Capgemini and BNP Paribas, global non-cash transaction volumes grew at 10.1% in 2016 to hit 482.6 billion in value, with China contributing to 25.8% of that growth. When it comes to e-wallets specifically, China alone contributes to 16.3 billion transactions while the rest of the world accounts for remaining 25.5 billion transactions. China is predicted to help it overtake the USA in non-cash transaction volumes by 2021, in parts due to the American market’s slowness to adopt new payments technologies that Chinese companies are more open to. With that being said, we…

The Insurance Authority (IA) announced that it has granted the first authorization of a new insurer owning and operating solely digital distribution channels under the Fast Track, marking a significant milestone of Insurtech development in Hong Kong. “The first virtual insurer approved under the Fast Track is a local startup interested in providing products with simple structure, high protection element and low premium through bespoke digital distribution channels without the involvement of intermediaries,” said Mr Clement Cheung, Chief Executive Officer of the IA. “Insurtech is beneficial to both the industry and consumers as it stimulates innovation, enhances value proposition, improves…

DBS Bank announced that it has partnered with one of China’s largest automotive logistics companies, China Capital Logistic Co. Ltd alongside blockchain provider, Wanxiang Blockchain, to launch an automotive blockchain platform connecting car manufacturers, exporters, logistics carriers and car dealerships. Named YunLianMeng, which means “Logistics Supply-Chain Connect” in Mandarin, the blockchain platform aims to provide the Chinese automotive company’s supply chain network with greater efficiency, cost savings and transparency. The blockchain platform will also facilitate integrated trade financing from DBS, giving participants easy access to financing on-the-go. This will be especially beneficial to small and medium enterprises (SMEs), which previously would not…

A new report by finance and accounting professor Paul Barnes released in November 2018 explores the cryptocurrency market, highlighting its susceptibility to speculative bubbles, manipulation, scams and fraud. The paper, which was presented at a blockchain and cryptocurrency conference organized by the University of Sydney Business School on November 9, argues that the largely unregulated nature of the cryptocurrency market and the desire for privacy by founders, owners and developers, have made accountability and disclosure requirements either minimal or non-existent, leading to the manipulation of cryptocurrency prices, volumes and market capitalization information. Price and volume manipulation Many forms of…

The banking consortium JETCO announced that 13 banks and popular e-service providers, including OpenRice, Price.com.hk and MoneyHero.com.hk, have signed on to JETCO APIX, Hong Kong’s first open API (application programming interface) exchange platform, that will commence operation in January 2019. This initiative signals that the industry is responding well the initiatives from the HKMA to push for open banking in Hong Kong JETCO APIX aims to provide easy and seamless connectivity for businesses across industries via API integrations and a highly secure platform for them to collaborate and create new services that will help enhance customer experience. Banks and other API providers can upload and…

Blockchain is perceived by many as the next big game-changer in trade, promising to enhance the efficiency of processes and help trade move closer to becoming paperless. However, the challenges to overcome are equivalent to the opportunities offered by the technology, according to a new report by the World Trade Organization (WTO). In a report titled Can Blockchain Revolutionize International Trade?, the WTO analyzes the relevance of blockchain technology for international trade and discusses the potential of blockchain for reducing costs and enhancing supply chain transparency as well as the opportunities to provide for small-scale producers and companies. “Blockchain, which…

Japan has seen strong growth in the fintech ecosystem in these past several years as fintech startups, industry players, regulars and government have collaborated to build a sustainable and scalable environment for innovation. Fintech has been considered one of the five strategic sectors for the government to boost in the coming years, and there is an aim for over 80 banks to open their API within a three-year timeframe. Additionally, institutions and financial heavyweights including Mitsubishi UFJ, Mizuho Financial Group and Hitachi have committed millions into developing innovative financial solutions and fostering digital finance innovation. In Japan’s burgeoning fintech ecosystem,…

Blockchain may have been the obvious choice when one considers the subcategory of fintech that might gain traction this year, but we should have expected that the rise of a more reliable ledger system would pave the way to the rise of companies that would be able to utilise information gleaned from said ledger. Either through newly collected information or utilising data banks that have been sitting idly in data caches of various big corporations, artificial intelligence (AI) has risen and may pave the way for the future of fintech. McKinsey estimates that AI could potentially create between  US$3.5 trillion…

Oriente, the Hong Kong-based financial services and technology company announced today that it had completed a US$ 105 million initial funding round. This included investment from the founders and a group of family offices including members of the Berjaya Group, JG Summit Holdings, Inc., and Sinar Mas. The financing is used to accelerate technology and product development, scale multi-market operations, and power the growth of Oriente’s digital solutions into new markets, and has its eye on Southeast Asia’s fastest-growing economies. Oritente uses technology like Artificial Intelligence, machine learning, and data science, to build solutions that provide real-time credit scoring, digital…

FWD Group, a Hong Kong-based insurance arm of Pacific Century Group has bought into Bloomberg’s risk management solutions. Some of the systems that FWD have brought on include Bloomberg’s Multi-Asset Risk System (MARS), its Asset and Investment Manager (AIM), its enhanced Portfolio and Risk Analytics solution (PORT+) and its latest IFRS 9 solution. Together, this software will grant FWD more ability to analyze, model and monitor investment performance, with a transparent firm-wide view of investment risks across the region, and the workflow necessary to comply with the latest global regulatory standards. FWD Group spans Hong Kong & Macau, Thailand, Indonesia,…

In Taiwan, regulators prefer innovators compared to disruptors. Innovators can work together with existing companies and thus, within the same regulation frameworks that have already been established. Meanwhile, disruptors usually call for brand new regulations, which can be more difficult for the regulators to build from scratch while still protecting consumers effectively. This means that the kinds of startups that flourish in Taiwan tend to be ones that operate within existing parameters, but with innovations that either simplify or reduce prices for traditional processes. However, there is an interesting trend developing among the top funded fintech startups in taiwan that we…

Hong Kong is investing heavily to become Asia’s top fintech hub. Among the key policies put in place this year to help it achieve its ambitions is a HK$500 million fund to develop financial services over the next half-decade, including in fintech. In 2017, Hong Kong-based fintech companies raised US$546 million, more than doubling the previous year’s amount and eclipsing Singapore’s US$229 million. 2018 has been a great year for Hong Kong’s fintech industry with the annual Fintech Week wrapping up earlier this month a successful event that showcased some of the city’s most innovative ventures. As we head towards…