Millions of cryptocurrency investors have been scammed out of massive sums of real money. In 2018, losses from cryptocurrency-related crimes amounted to US$1.7 billion. The criminals use both old-fashioned and new-technology tactics to swindle their marks in schemes based on digital currencies exchanged through online databases called blockchains. From researching blockchain, cryptocurrency and cybercrime, I can see that some cryptocurrency fraudsters rely on tried-and-true Ponzi schemes that use income from new participants to pay out returns to earlier investors. Others use highly automatized and sophisticated processes, including automated software that interacts with Telegram, an internet-based instant-messaging system popular among people…

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) and the Bank of Thailand (BOT) entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to foster collaboration between the two regulatory authorities in promoting financial innovation. Under the agreement, HKMA and BOT agreed to work together on referral of innovative businesses, information and experience sharing, and joint innovation projects. One potential collaboration under consideration is a joint research project on Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC), to which the two authorities may apply the knowledge and experience they gained from their respective CBDC research studies, namely Project LionRock by HKMA and Project Inthanon by BOT. Project LionRock…

Insurtech investment continued its momentum with 85 deals totaling US$1.42 billion recorded in Q1 2019, marking the third-straight quarter to register more than US$1 billion in funding. Over Q4 2018, the deal count increased by 35%, although total funding decreased by 11%, according to the new Quarterly Insurtech Briefing from Willis Towers Watson, a global advisory, broking and solutions company. 54% of the deals of Q1 2019 were outside the US, marking a continuing trend, the firm says. Deal count in the UK increased by 50%, and in the US by 44%. However, deal count in China fell by 38%.…

UPDATE: Four of Hong Kong virtual banks have since launched, check out our latest article to find out the progress on Hong Kong’s virtual banking scene Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has announced a grand total of eight virtual banking license recipients, in three separate announcements so far. Despite the rumoured 29 hopefuls vying for the license, it’s likely that HKMA will only be granting licenses to at most, 8 applicants, which quota has been fulfilled as of yesterday. With the intention of launching their Hong Kong offering within 6 to 9 months, those selected to pass the reportedly high…

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) issued virtual banking rights to 4 more companies: Ant SME Services (Hong Kong) , Infinium, Insight Fintech HK, and Ping An OneConnect. According to their business plans, these four newly licenced virtual banks intend to launch their services in around 6 to 9 months. Many of these new licensees come with strong backing, below is a quick look at the the companies behind the new licensees. 5 were predicted earlier to be among the companies who will be granted virtual banking licenses. Norman Chan Chief Executive of the HKMA, said: “We are…

OneDegree, a Hong Kong-based insurance technology start-up under Cyberport Incubation Programme, extends its Series A round to above US$30 million, subject to regulator’s approval. The extended round is led by BitRock Capital and it sees participation from Cyberport Macro Fund, Cathay Venture, and previous investors from its Series A. OneDegree intends to use the funds to accelerate efforts to scale its end-to-end digital insurance platform, launch new product offerings in Hong Kong, and explore growth opportunities including the “Greater Bay Area” initiative. It’s co-founder Alex Leung added that it is an opportune time for Hong Kong to secure their leadership…

WeChat Pay, one of China’s most popular e-wallet providers, has just updated its payment policy to ban cryptocurrency transactions. The move was first noticed by founding partner of crypto investment firm Primitive, Dovey Wan in a tweet. https://twitter.com/doveywan/status/1125667936335581190?s=21 According to the tweet, merchants that serve any token issuance or fund raising of crypto trading activities will risk account termination. Since most over-the-counter transactions locally occur on WeChat, Dovey expressed concern that the move would impact liquidity to some extent. The updated rules will come into force on the 31st of May, stopping merchants from using its platform to engage in…

In 2018 and early 2019, the Japanese fintech market witnessed significant developments. Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) published a report in December 2018 which proposed new regulatory requirements for virtual currency exchange service providers and a new regulatory framework for initial coin offerings (ICOs). The FSA has also announced its intention to ease restrictions on the types of activities in which banks can engage and launched in June 2018 a new regulatory sandbox regime to allow fintechs and financial companies to test innovative products. As the Japanese fintech industry continues to grow, we look today at ten of the country’s…

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…