HK a dynamic fintech hub

The Government is committed to promoting fintech development in Hong Kong, to enhance the competitiveness of its financial services industry and accelerate digitalisation.

Video screenshot from news.gov.hk

To support the Government’s strategy, Invest Hong Kong actively assists enterprises in the sector in setting up or expanding their business in Hong Kong.

In the first eight months of this year, the department gave assistance to 59 fintech companies from 12 economies, including the Mainland, the US, France, Singapore, Canada and the UK. This represented a 44% increase in the number of companies compared to the same period in 2023.

Video screenshot from news.gov.hk

Tech base

Invest Hong Kong’s Global Head of Financial Services, Fintech & Sustainability King Leung described this as great news for Hong Kong, with the firms bringing investment and job opportunities to the city, in addition to helping to grow its reservoir of fintech expertise.

He noted that a leading digital banking firm based in Shenzhen, has set up its technology company headquarters in Hong Kong and plans to invest US$150 million.

Mr Leung highlighted that as an international financial centre, there are thousands of companies covering different sectors in Hong Kong, making it the most fertile soil for a business-to-business fintech market.

Ideal choice: Partners Group Head of Private Wealth APAC and Hong Kong Office Henry Chui highlights that Hong Kong is the largest wealth centre in the Asia-Pacific and that setting up office in Hong Kong was crucial for the company. Source from news.gov.hk

Foreign investment

Swiss-based global private equity firm Partners Group, which has US$150 billion in assets under management, also opted to set up its new office in Hong Kong, with a view to further expanding its business in the Asia-Pacific region.

Its Head of Private Wealth APAC and Hong Kong Office Henry Chui believes that developing the firm’s private wealth business in Hong Kong was a crucial step as the city is the largest wealth centre in the Asia-Pacific, with 2,700 family offices and over 12,000 ultra-high-net-worth individuals.

Mr Chui also noted that with its global talent and unparalleled infrastructure, Hong Kong was the ideal place for the business to develop and expand its talent pool.

Not to mention, Hong Kong’s close proximity to the Mainland.

“It is an excellent springboard for us to develop our business and expand into the Greater China region,” he added.

Invest Hong Kong believes that as an international financial centre, Hong Kong offers a robust regulatory environment, along with abundant business opportunities and financial support, making it the ideal location for the development of fintech and digital finance. There are approximately 1,000 fintech companies in Hong Kong, covering various sectors.

Looking ahead, the department pointed out that there are three major trends worth watching.

First, Hong Kong, as the second largest cross-boundary wealth management centre in the world, has attracted a lot of wealthtech companies.

Fintech ecosystem: Invest Hong Kong’s Global Head of Financial Services, Fintech & Sustainability King Leung says the department assisted 59 fintech companies in setting up or expanding their business in the city in the first eight months of 2024, helping to grow Hong Kong’s reservoir of fintech expertise. Source from news.gov.hk

Second, the Government’s policies in promoting digital assets, including Web3 and blockchain, encourages relevant companies to develop their business in Hong Kong.  The digital assets and blockchain segments have been the fastest growing segments for Invest Hong Kong over the past two years.

Third, aside from fintech, a sub-segment called green fintech has become a major focus for future development, seeing as Hong Kong is also a leading international green finance and greentech hub.

Promoting fintech

A range of events focused on fintech development in Hong Kong will be held throughout this month, including Hong Kong FinTech Week 2024.

With the theme “Illuminating New Pathways in FinTech”, the event will be held from October 28 to November 1, and is anticipated to attract approximately 30,000 attendees from more than 100 economies.

NEW YORK (AP) — Your wallet may soon be getting thinner.

Visa on Wednesday announced major changes to how credit and debit cards will operate in the U.S. in the coming months and years.

The new features could mean Americans will be carrying fewer physical cards in their wallets, and will make the 16-digit credit or debit card number printed on every card increasingly irrelevant.

They will be some of the biggest changes to how payments operate in the U.S. since the U.S. rolled out chip-embedded cards several years ago. They also come as Americans have many more options to pay for purchases beyond “credit or debit," including buy now, pay later companies, peer-to-peer payment options, paying directly with a bank, or digital payment systems like Apple Pay.

“I think (with these features) we’re getting past the point where consumers may never need to manually enter an account number ever again,” said Mark Nelsen, Visa’s global head of consumer payments, in an interview.

The biggest change coming for Americans will be the ability for banks to issue one physical payment card that will be connected to multiple bank accounts. That means no more carrying, for example, a Bank of America or Chase debit card as well as their respective credit cards in a physical wallet. Americans will be able to set criteria with their bank — such as having all purchases below $100 or with a certain merchant applied to the debit card, while other purchases go on the credit card.

The feature, already being used in Asia, will be available this summer. Buy now, pay later company Affirm is the first of Visa's customers to roll out the feature in the U.S.

Some of Visa’s new features are in response to online-payments fraud, which continues to increase as more countries adopt digital payments. The San Francisco-based company estimates that payment fraud happens roughly seven times more often online than it does in person, and there are now billions of stolen credit and debit card numbers available to criminals.

Other new elements are also in response to features that non-payments companies have rolled out in recent years. The Apple Card, which uses Mastercard as its payment network, does not come with a printed 16-digit account number and Apple Card users can request a fresh credit card number at any time without having to dispose of the physical card.

Visa executives see a future where banks will issue cards where the 16-digit account number, if the new cards come with them, is largely symbolic.

Among the other updates unveiled by Visa are changes to tap-to-pay features. Americans will be able to tap their credit or debit cards to their smartphones to add the card to mobile wallets, instead of using a smartphone's camera to scan in a card's information, or tap the card to their smartphones to approve a transaction online. Visa will also start implementing biometrics to approve transactions, similar to how Apple devices use a fingerprint or face scan to approve transactions.

The features will take time to filter down to the banks, which will decide when or what to implement for their customers. But since the banks and credit card companies are Visa's customers, and issue cards with the Visa label, these are features that the financial institutions have been asking for.

FILE - A Visa sign is displayed on the front door of a local business, April 27, 2021, in Urbandale, Iowa. Visa has announced major changes to how its credit and debit cards will operate in the U.S. Features in the works will lead to Americans to carry fewer physical cards in their wallets and make the 16-digit credit or debit card number printed on every physical card increasingly irrelevant. The new features unveiled Wednesday, May 15, 2024 will be some of the biggest changes to how payments operate since the U.S. rolled out chip-embedded cards several years ago. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, file)