Hong Kong’s financial regulators will be holding a second meeting with stakeholders from the banking and cryptocurrency industries to address the challenges crypto companies face in accessing banking services in the city, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg on June 15, 2023. The meeting, scheduled to take place within the next two months, will seek to persuade banks to offer services to crypto firms in the city and will be the second gathering of the sort since May. At the first meeting last month, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) questioned some of Hong Kong’s biggest lenders, including HSBC,…

The Hong Kong government has established a task force chaired by Financial Secretary Paul Chan to promote the development of Web3.0. According to a 30 June statement, the Hong  Kong government is looking to “embrace the megatrend of Web 3.0 development” with the task force comprising 15 non-official members from the relevant market sectors with the participation of key government officials and financial regulators concerned. The term of the non-official members will take effect from 1 July 2023 for two years. The Govt announces the establishment of the Task Force on Promoting #Web3 Development https://t.co/wrC1DmE2QD — Hong Kong SAR Government…

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) and Hong Kong Association of Banks (HKAB) has launched the Anti-Scam Consumer Protection Charter to enhance public awareness of safeguarding credit card and personal information. Led by the HKMA and the HKAB, all 23 card issuing banks and 15 merchant institutions in Hong Kong are participating in the charter. Under the charter, participating institutions commit not to send instant electronic messages (e.g. SMS, WhatsApp, WeChat, etc.) to customers with embedded hyperlinks to request for personal and credit card information online, and to convey the message of “Beware of scams” to the public through various…

Hong Kong’s digital insurer OneDegree Group announced that it has secured an additional US$27 million to close its Series B funding round at US$55 million. The fundraise was joined by existing investors Gobi Partners, Sun Hung Kai and Bitrock. The firm had previously bagged a US$28 million Series B1 in August 2021. This brings its total funds raised to over US$97 million. According to OneDegree, it will use the new funds to expand its digital assets insurance business and insurtech offerings globally. The firm is looking to broaden its product offering and deepen the market penetration of its direct-to-consumer insurance…

The Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing Limited (HKEX) is set to launch its IPO settlement platform FINI in October this year. FINI will significantly shorten the time between the pricing of an IPO and the trading of shares from five to two business days. HKEX said that the exact launch date of FINI will be announced several weeks before launch, subject to market readiness. Following the successful completion of external user testing earlier this month, HKEX will arrange market practice sessions and market rehearsals in July and August respectively. This is intended to simulate interactive, end-to-end IPO settlement operations under…

Before fintech and digitalisation became prominent, investors had to fill in long and clumsy account opening forms and even pay a visit to the branch just to open an account at an investment platform or a brokerage firm. Out of the concerns of potential money laundering and other misconduct, authenticating the identity of an investor is important in order to complete account opening. Given the competitiveness of the Hong Kong wealth management industry, investment platforms and brokerage firms have always struggled to strike a balance between security, compliance and convenience while being compliant with local regulations. FSMOne (Hong Kong), an…

The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) has enabled its customers to buy and sell Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs listed on the Hong Kong exchange, according to Chinese journalist Colin Wu in a series of tweets. SCOOP: HSBC, the largest bank in Hong Kong, today allows its customers to buy and sell Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs listed on the Hong Kong exchange, and is also the first bank in Hong Kong to allow it. The move will expand local users’ exposure to cryptocurrencies in Hong Kong. pic.twitter.com/vH0LieSVGw — Wu Blockchain (@WuBlockchain) June 26, 2023 Available through the HSBC HK Easy…

Mainland China has emerged as a hub of innovation and rapid growth in the fintech sector, with several firms such as the Ant Group, WeBank and Lufax leading the way in transforming the financial landscape. These companies have captured attention and investor interest with their cutting-edge technologies and disruptive business models. But besides the large and established ones, smaller players are also evolving in this burgeoning landscape. To get a sense of the country’s up-and-coming fintech startups, we’ve selected six of the fastest-growing and hottest fintech startups in Mainland China. These companies have witnessed strong traction over the past few…

The advent of ISO 20022 signifies a monumental shift in the financial world, a transition that promises unprecedented transparency, efficiency, and improved risk management. This financial standard elevates transaction data richness to a new level by offering up to ten times more data elements per transaction. Its global adoption across the banking industry, regulators, and other financial players significantly transforms the once fragmented landscape into a unified field of standardized transactions. ISO 20022 comes with the potential of yielding higher quality data and thereby enhancing reconciliation rates. It could enable real-time and frictionless payments. Moreover, this new standard compels banking…

AsiaPay, a digital payment solutions in the Asia Pacific, has announced the partnership with PayMe by HSBC in Hong Kong to help local merchants provide more flexible payment options in a single device and enhance the purchase experience for consumers. PayMe is a mobile payment service from HSBC, currently available only for Hong Kong users with local phone numbers and banks. Users can pay businesses, transfer money to one another using a mobile app, linked to their credit card or bank account. The partnership will enable merchants to offer PayMe to their customers when they check out online and offline.…

AXA Hong Kong and Macau has partnered with Carbon Wallet, a one-stop green lifestyle reward platform, to motivate the community to live a greener lifestyle for a sustainable future. As Carbon Wallet’s first insurance partner in Hong Kong, AXA activates a customer engagement campaign “AXA Go Green Rewards” through the former’s green rewards platform. The campaign aims to recognise its customers’ effort to reduce their use of paper through opting for digitalised insurance processes and thereby reducing carbon emissions, and encourage them to take further steps towards a greener lifestyle. The “AXA Go Green Rewards” starts from 19 June 2023…

PETRONAS has announced the selection of 20 startups from across Asia Pacific to participate in the third edition of PETRONAS FutureTech, an intensive technology accelerator programme. The PETRONAS FutureTech 3.0, co-organised with StartupX, a Singapore-based innovation, venture and startup enabler, marks a significant milestone as it welcomes startups and partners from the region for the first time. The 20 startups were selected from a competitive pool of applicants representing Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, India and Australia. Arni Laily Anwarrudin, Head of PETRONAS Ventures said, “At PETRONAS, we are dedicated to support the growth of startup founders and fostering collaboration and innovation…

Thunes, the global B2B payment infrastructure platform, has opened a new office in Beijing which will become the headquarters for its Greater China activity. The firm has invested CNY100 million (approximately US$14 million) to establish Thunes China, which will serve as it’s registered entity in the country. Thunes aims to provide efficient payment rails, enabling Chinese licensed institutions, such as banks, third-party payment service providers, e-commerce marketplaces, importers and exporters, to leverage Thunes’ global network capabilities and capacities. It has already secured several strategic partnerships with China-based companies. This includes a partnership with Tencent Financial Technology, the fintech arm of…

Virtual bank Mox announced that it has obtained a Type 1 (dealing in securities) license from Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) to enable it to roll out Hong Kong and U.S. equity trading services. Mox will soon pilot the Mox Invest equity trading service in the Hong Kong Monetary Authority’s Fintech Supervisory Sandbox and onboard customers in phases later this year. The digital bank said that the Mox Invest intuitive onscreen dashboard will give customers immediate clarity over their securities portfolio performance. Beyond Hong Kong and U.S. securities investment, Mox Invest will also allow customers to invest in…

Hong Kong’s virtual bank livi has partnered with FWD General Insurance (FWDGI) to jointly launch a comprehensive pet insurance offering. Customers can easily apply for the Pet Care offering through the livi app. The insurance covers pet cats and dogs from ages 6 months to 8 years old while those aged 9 – 15 years old are for renewal only. There are three plans available with the premium starting from HK$3.9 per day with a coverage period of 12-months with auto-renewal per annum. The premium payments can be made through the livi Debit Mastercard or the livi PayLater Mastercard. “Many…

BOCI (Bank of China) has successfully issued CNH 200 million fully digital structured notes, making it the first Chinese financial institution to issue a tokenized security in Hong Kong. The product was originated by UBS and placed to its clients in Asia Pacific, marking a long-term collaboration between BOCI and UBS in the space of digital structured notes. UBS had issued a USD 50 million tokenized fixed rate note in December 2022 under English and Swiss law, digitized on a permissioned blockchain. By issuing these digital securities, both BOCI and UBS have taken new steps in terms of applicable law…

HSBC has unveiled the HSBC Innovation Banking, which includes the former Silicon Valley Bank UK (SVB UK) as well as newly formed innovation teams in Hong Kong, Israel, and the US. The innovation-focused HSBC teams in the US, Israel and Hong Kong will operate as part of the HSBC Innovation Banking brand which will roll out globally in the coming months. In Hong Kong, around a dozen dedicated bankers are being onboarded to complement HSBC’s existing new economy expertise serving Hong Kong and Asia-Pacific. The bank said that this will deliver a globally-connected, specialised banking proposition to support a broad…

Lawmaker Dr Johnny Ng has extended an invitation to all global virtual asset trading operators including the likes of Coinbase to apply for a license and “further development plans” in Hong Kong. I hereby offer an invitation to welcome all global virtual asset trading operators including @coinbase to come to HK for application of official trading platforms and further development plans. Please feel free to approach me and I am happy to provide any assistance. pic.twitter.com/bcIi1IjMlc — Johnny Ng 吴杰庄 (@Johnny_nkc) June 10, 2023 In December 2022, Ng had co-founded startup accelerator G-Rocket with the aim to help 1,000 WEB3.0…

The costs and complexity of legacy banking technology have firmly established the need for financial institutions to modernise their systems. Banks must move away from legacy infrastructure that constrains innovation and prevents them from providing the real-time, personalised banking experiences that customers have come to expect. Banks can unlock greater flexibility, enhanced resilience, and lower operational costs by moving core technology into the cloud. In the past, banks may have adopted a big bang migration approach to move to a new core platform. This would entail a single migration phase in which all product data was extracted, transformed and loaded…

Alibaba Cloud, the cloud division of the Chinese e-commerce giant, is launching several initiatives to support its ecosystem partners, including the Independent Software Vendor (ISV) Acceleration Program, training programs, and new incentives. Through these initiatives, the firm aims to increase stickiness through value-added services, create synergies and ultimately expand its ecosystem of partners by supporting these organizations’ growth in Southeast Asia. The move is part of Alibaba Cloud’s broader global strategy and ambition to expand its presence in Southeast Asia, recognizing the region’s growing digital transformation, increasing cloud adoption and strong growth prospects. Launch of the ISV Acceleration Program At…