Hong Kong’s business-friendly environment, financial and operational support, strategic position in Asia-Pacific (APAC) and advanced technical infrastructure provide ideal conditions for fintech startups looking to scale, grow and crack the Asian market. Home to more than 460 fintech companies, including several unicorn startups, Hong Kong has emerged as one of the world’s most dynamic fintech markets, leveraging its historical position as an international financial center and embracing progressive regulatory regimes to foster innovation and appeal to global entrepreneurs. According to Invest Hong Kong (InvestHK)’s 2020 Startup Survey, about a quarter (26%) of Hong Kong’s 3,000+ startups were founded by people…
Author: Fintech News Hong Kong
Author
Banks and financial institutions are faced with critical challenges in their current governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) approaches, which often times involve inefficient and cumbersome processes requiring an excessive amount of manual work with disconnected and varied results. This challenge is further exacerbated with the constant addition of new guidelines to adhere to and new initiatives being pushed forth in order to mitigate risk, making it ever-so daunting for risk and compliance teams to keep up. In this fast-evolving risk and regulatory landscape, banks are increasingly turning to so-called electronic-GRC (eGRC) platforms to address the inefficiencies and limitations related to…
Hong Kong’s virtual insurer Bowtie announced the closing of a US$ 22.6 million Series B1 round led by Mitsui, with participation from existing investor Sun Life Hong Kong. Mitsui is said to be one of the largest Japanese trading firms, and the largest shareholder in IHH Healthcare Berhad, which is one of the world’s largest private healthcare services networks. With its latest funding round, Bowtie has its eye on scaling its operations and expanding across Asia as well as developing a value-based healthcare model by partnering closely with healthcare providers. Since its launch in 2019, Bowtie said that it has…
The Cyberport Venture Capital Forum (CVCF), its premier annual venture forum will return on the 2-3 November with the theme of “Venturing for Success: Resilience, Growth & Opportunity”, bringing together industry leaders, investors, enterprises and technopreneurs. CVCF 2021 will take place in a hybrid format to discuss and share insights on trends in the global I&T sector and venture capital, investor strategies, emerging venture capitals, opportunities and prospects in the Greater Bay Area, and more. This multi-channel set-up enhances global exposure, facilitates deal flow and provides extensive opportunities for startups to explore fundraising opportunities. Also, prominent will be emerging investment themes…
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has released the list of 19 eligible banks in the country which can launch the cross border Wealth Management Connect (WMC) services. These banks, together with their respective Mainland partner banks whose eligibility have been confirmed by the regulators, can start providing cross border WMC services together from today onwards. The WMC was jointly announced by the People’s Bank of China, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, and the Monetary Authority of Macao to facilitate cross-boundary investment by individual residents in the Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA). Through the WMC, residents…
Bloom, a Hong Kong-based technology startup backed by ZA International, announced a collaboration with Visa to create a cashback app. The technical support for Bloom is provided by Visa’s back-end system for processing card transactions. Bloom can distribute instant rebates by identifying eligible transactions and Visa cardholders, enabling reward redemption in a timely manner. Powered by the Faster Payment System (FPS), members can transfer the cash rebates in Bloom to a designated bank account anytime. Eddie Rong, Founding Member of Bloom said, “We are pleased to address users’ pain points by handling sophisticated application and redemption procedures with technology, allowing…
Singapore based digital trade finance network Contour has partnered with the Shenzhen Fintech Institute, a subsidiary of The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) to look at opportunities to boost China’s trade ecosystem and further the adoption of trade digitisation across Asia. As the world’s largest exporter and home to one of the top three letter of credit (LC) markets, China is a major strategic target for Contour in its mission to digitise global trade. Despite the size of the Chinese market, working capital often remains inaccessible due to the inefficient manual processes that companies face when seeking trade finance. The…
Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase announced the launch of “Coinbase NFT”, a peer-to-peer marketplace for the minting, purchasing, showcasing, and discovering non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The crypto exchange said that it wanted to make NFTs more accessible by building user-friendly interfaces that put the complexity behind the scenes. Coinbase will be adding social features that open new avenues for conversation and discovery as well as grow the creator community. The company will enable artists to maintain creative control through decentralised contracts and metadata transparency where all NFTs will be on-chain. The initial launch will support Ethereum based ERC-721 and ERC-1155 standards with multi-chain…
Refinitiv’s new report “Workspace Without Limits” explores the data challenges financial professionals are facing, and the role that technology, interoperability and programming skills play in solving for some of these challenges; enhancing productivity, and helping firms differentiate against the competition. Key findings from Refinitiv’s report Refinitiv’s survey of 1,200 financial professionals shows new ways of working are urgently needed to keep up with an industry undergoing rapid digital transformation. Open architecture capabilities and interoperability standards are needed to drive simplicity and speed and address the data challenges associated with app overload. Firms need to be investing in the workflows of…
Hong Kong’s consumer credit market improved in Q2 2021 as the local economy continued to rebound from the impact of COVID-19 and private consumption increased 6.5% year-on-year (YoY) increase, according to TransUnion’s Q2 2021 Industry Insights Report. In Q2 2021, new credit growth was seen across all major consumer credit categories but credit cards mainly led this upward trends. Originations, the process of which a lender or another credit granting institution approves for a new credit product or exposures, increased YoY across all major unsecured lending credit categories but were the strongest for credit cards. Originations for credit card rose…
Hong Kong boasts of a thriving fintech scene with a dynamic environment that can help fintech start-ups to scale up and expand. Hong Kong has also been recognised by KPMG as one of the leading technology hubs outside Silicon Valley. However, to ensure that it remains a top fintech hub, it is important for Hong Kong to have a fintech-savvy workforce that can meet the skills and competencies needed by the fintech industry. The HKMA, understanding this, has since included a mission to expand a fintech-savvy workforce as one of five focus areas under the Hong Kong Fintech 2025 Strategy.…
Hong Kong-based digital asset custody service provider Hex Trust has raised US$10 million in an investment round led by Animoca Brands. Animoca Brands, which integrates entertainment and gamification with blockchain technology, will serve as a strategic partner to Hex Trust as the custodian rolls out additional services covering the non-fungible tokens (NFTs) market. Other investors include Ripple Labs, Algorand Foundation, BCW Group, Tessera Capital Partners, Mind Fund, Double Peak Group, and Token Bay Capital. Several investors of the US$6 million Series A round closed earlier this year also participated, including QBN Capital, Kenetic Capital, MANTRA DAO, Borderless Capital, Radiant Tech…
Recently the Hong Kong Monetary Authority laid out its new plan to boost the development of Hong Kong’s fintech sector, dubbed Fintech 2025 one of the key areas included creating a next-generation data infrastructure, the Commercial Data Exchange. The new data strategy was first unveiled by HKMA’s Chief Executive Eddie Yue during Hong Kong Fintech Week 2020. What is The Commercial Data Interchange? The CDI is a consent-based financial infrastructure, and a pilot launch of the CDI is expected towards the end of 2021. The HKMA has also launched the Commercial Data Interchange Innovation Hub to facilitate the development and…
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has released a technical whitepaper on retail central bank digital currency (CBDC), titled “e-HKD: A technical perspective”. Building on the experience in wholesale CBDCs, in June 2021, the HKMA has started a study on the prospect of issuing retail CBDC in Hong Kong, i.e. e-HKD with the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub Hong Kong Center. The project covers both technical and policy considerations, and aims to come up with an initial view by the middle of next year. The whitepaper also explores potential technical design options for issuing and distributing retail CBDCs.…
In its sixth edition, Hong Kong Fintech Week will completely reinvent your previous event experience by combining a physical conference in Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre with digital access from anywhere in the world. With only a few weeks left before the most anticipated event of the year, Hong Kong Fintech Week 2021 on November 1-5, we summarised the most important reasons on why you should attend it this year. Please visit www.fintechweek.hk for details and registration! 1. Dive into 100+ hours of content with 180+ sessions Don’t worry if you are not able to visit the event in…
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), Bank of Thailand, BIS Innovation Hub Hong Kong Center (BISIH), People’s Bank of China and the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates have reveled findings from their joint Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) project. Project Inthanon-Lionrock Phase 2 found that the prototype platform for multiple CBDC settlements is able to complete international transfers and foreign exchange operations within seconds, as opposed to the 3-5 days normally required. The cost of such operations can also be reduced by up to half, according to the project’s report. In particular, additional hypothetical currencies and jurisdictions were incorporated…
The Board of Mox Bank Limited (“Mox”) announced the appointment of Barbaros Uygun as the CEO of Mox and Executive Director of the Board with effect from 27 September 2021. After creating a strong foundation for Mox over three years, Deniz Güven will step down as CEO of Mox and Executive Director of the Board, with effect from 27 September 2021, to pursue a new business venture. He will serve as a special advisor to Standard Chartered on a number of important digital initiatives. Barbaros is a proven leader with a wealth of experience in digital banking and transformation, bringing…
Hong Kong-based cryptocurrency platform Crypto.com announced that it has expanded its total insurance coverage to US$750 million, including both direct and indirect custodian coverage for more than 10 million of it users. The insurance policy offers protection against physical damage or destruction, and third-party theft. According to Crypto.com, this policy is the largest coverage that it has ever secured for its cold storage assets on Ledger Vault, the company’s custodial partner. The platform had previously secured a US$100 million direct insurance policy led by Arch Underwriting at Lloyd’s Syndicate 2012. Kris Marszalek, Co-founder and CEO of Crypto.com said, “We believe…
TikTok’s owner ByteDance said on September 01, 2021 that it plans to scale back its fintech business and sell its securities brokerage operations amid regulatory pressure on fintech companies. The firm did not name the business unit it intends to divest nor did it provide data about its financial services business, but report by Chinese media LatePost claims that ByteDance is planning to exit the brokerage business completely. This follows the abandonment of its long-prepared wealth management business earlier this year, the report says. In Hong Kong, ByteDance runs Songshu Zhengquan, which translates to Squirrel Securities. Songshu Zhengquan provides financial information…
Cross border payments firm Airwallex announced it has raised US$200 million in an oversubscribed Series E financing round, increasing the company’s valuation to US$4 billion. This latest investment which was led by Lone Pine Capital follows an extended Series D capital raise earlier this year in March. Airwallex has secured more than US$700 million in equity funds to date. New investors G Squared and Vetamer Capital also joined the round, alongside existing investors including 1835i Ventures (formerly ANZi), DST Global, Salesforce Ventures and Sequoia Capital China. The firm said in a statement that the new funding will allow it to…