Hong Kong’s future lies with fintech, and it will be bright
- Hong Kong is the gateway for Chinese companies to launch internationally, and companies seeking to reach China and Southeast Asia
- China is the only major economy expected to grow this year, and represents a big opportunity for Hong Kong fintech
Today, the city is uniquely positioned among mainland China, Southeast Asia and the rest of the world. It is the gateway for Chinese companies to launch internationally, as it is for companies seeking to reach China’s 1.4 billion people, Southeast Asia and beyond.
This puts Hong Kong at the start of a long-term transformation in how people across Asia access their money, and this is likely to be a driving force of positive economic change for the region’s one-billion-plus unbanked population.
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Hong Kong was already taking steps to boost competition across mainstream applications, by leading Asia through a revolution in virtual banking. Hong Kong has also, for many years, been the launch pad for fintech companies seeking to innovate and scale up across Asia.
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We are at the beginning of a long recovery process, but businesses are confident they will emerge with the ability to scale up, and will access strong talent, capital and the infrastructure they need to remain relevant and competitive in the future.
Since the outbreak, consumers, banks and insurers have been working hard to try new things. Mobile services like HSBC’s PayMe and Faster Payment System are just a few examples of broad-based adoption that have been making an impact. This positive attitude to experimentation is in the DNA of Hong Kong, and it is this that will position Hong Kong to take advantage of Asia’s demographic dividend.
This applies to all areas of financial services. A recent study by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority released this year found that 86 per cent of incumbent banks are progressively integrating fintech applications across all types of financial services, and all incumbent banks intend to introduce one or more fintech applications to their business in the next five years.
Asia is now poised to lead. Despite the headwinds, China is the only major economy with a positive forecast for this year, and if any city has the required set of capabilities to benefit from a post-pandemic opportunity, it is Hong Kong.
Given the city’s world-class regulatory regime and leading capital market, this is the year fintech will supercharge Hong Kong’s entrepreneurial transformation to take the financial services sector to the next level.
King Leung is the head of fintech at InvestHK. Before he joined the Hong Kong government, King was a serial entrepreneur, angel investor and university lecturer in Asia, the US and UK