Archive

Ant Financial, Tencent, and Xiaomi Are Among HK’s New 4 Virtual Banking Licensees

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

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Hong Kong Insurtech OneDegree Closes Over US$ 30 Million in Extended Series A

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,

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WeChat Pay Will Start Terminating Accounts Caught Dealing with Crypto

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. Urgh, Wechat just

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Top 10 Fintech Startups In Japan

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

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Insurtech’s Explosion in Hong Kong, and What May Be Coming for the Scene

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

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Shenzhen Eyes to Turn Qianhai an Epicenter for Fintech and Blockchain

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

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Hong Kong’s Virtual Banks May Have to Look Beyond its Borders in Their Battle for Talent

Virtual banks have finally made an inroad into Hong Kong’s financial industry. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has begun granting licences for virtual banks to operate in the special administrative area in March this year. To date, the HKMA

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A Deeper Look into The Greater Bay Area, China’s Answer to Silicon Valley

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

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Hong Kong Chooses 3 Startup as Part of the Global Fintech Sandbox Project

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

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