Author: Fintech News Hong Kong

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,…

Hong Kong is making a move to challenge Singapore and others as the dominant location for fintech in Asia. Hong Kong in specific led the growth of the blockchain market in northeast Asia, with its friendly regulatory frameworks and policies for digital currency and blockchain-focused platform providers. In contempt of the advanced banking systems and financial platforms offered by the city’s multi-billion dollar banks and financial institutions, a substantial portion of the Hong Kong population currently utilizes non-bank payment platforms and applications to send cross-border payments and settle international transactions efficiently. FintechNews has made a list of fintech events in…

Ant Financial, Alipay’s parent company and Alibaba’s financial-services affiliate, is said to be worth US$75 billion, according to Elinor Leung, the head of telecom and Internet research at CLSA in Hong Kong. According to a Bloomberg report, Leung estimates that Ant Financial’s Alipay is worth US$50 billion, its micro loans service US$8 billion and its wealth management unit US$7 billion. The rest of Ant Financial’s valuation comes from investments and cash on hand. Ant Financial was founded in October 2014 by the Alibaba group after the Chinese e-commerce giant went public in the US. Ant Financial is controlled by Alibaba’s…

Automated investing services, also known as robo-advisors, are growing rapidly as they seek to provide customers with low-cost portfolios designed accordingly to each investor’s risk tolerance. According to Cerulli Associates, a financial services research firm, assets under management of robo-advisors will rise by 2,500% to US$489 billion in 2020 from US$18.7 billion in 2015. One of the regions that will be driving this trend is Asia-Pacific, which is expected to surpass Western Europe and power most the private wealth’s growth for the next decade and beyond. Given the region’s high Internet penetration rates, its large millennial population and the changing…

Regtech might not be a familiar name to most people but it is an important component in the fintech space. Regtech stands for regulatory technology which exists to help financial institutions and other organizations comply with increasingly stringent compliance rules. No Place To Hide – Banks Are Punished Around The Globe Ever since the global financial crisis in 2008, banks found themselves at the mercy of regulators. British regulator metered out a fine of $72 million pounds to Barclays for failure to do proper due diligence on their clients last year. Hong Kong regulator fined HSBC HK$605 million in May…

WeLab, one of the fastest growing fintech companies in Greater China, has announced it has secured a credit facility of US$25 million from ING Bank. WeLab is the operator of Wolaidai (我来贷), one of China’s largest mobile lending platforms, and WeLend, Hong Kong’s leading online lending platform. The firm aims to tap the bank loan market for another US$50 million in the coming months. This credit facility will provide lending capital for WeLab’s Hong Kong business and enables the company to meet rapidly growing demand for its loans in Hong Kong. WeLab’s business volume in Hong Kong more than doubled…

Hong Kong had granted Stored Value Facilities (SVF) Licenses to the first 5 batch of digital payment payment providers last month according to Startup Beat. This is in response to Payment Systems and Stored Value Facilities Ordinance which came into effect on 13 November 2015. They are Alibaba’s AliPay, Tencent’s WeChat Pay, Octopus’ O! ePay, Hong Kong Telecom’s Tap & Go and TNG’s TNG Wallet. In addition to these 5 players, Hong Kong might approve more licenses in November. The Mainland China Precedent In other words, after China opened the gates to mobile payment, Hong Kong is following its footstep.…

With financial services accounting for 16% of its GDP and employing 236,000 people, or 6% of total employment in Hong Kong, it comes with little surprise that the region has made fintech one of its top priorities. Hong Kong, one of the world’s leading international financial centers, is looking at financial technology as the natural evolution of financial services. With digitalization, artificial intelligence, robotics, hitting all major industries, the Fourth Industrial Revolution is expected to bring massive disruption in the banking and financial industry as well. Governments from all over the world are gearing up for fintech disruption. In Hong…