Hong Kong’s Faster Payment System has surpassed 700,000 transactions a day in fintech milestone, says Financial Secretary Paul Chan
- Electronic payment system averaged HK$5.2 billion in transactions a day at the end of September, three years after its debut
- FPS is one of several ways Hong Kong seeks to innovate, Financial Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po says at 2021 Hong Kong FinTech Week conference
“Hong Kong remains a prime financial centre,” Chan said in the opening address at the conference on Tuesday.
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By comparison, Singapore’s Fast and Secure Transfers (FAST) system averaged about 403,000 transactions a day worth S$578 million (US$428 million) in 2020, according to Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) data.
Octopus Cards Limited, the operator of the Octopus card system for transit and payments in Hong Kong, averaged 11.6 million transactions a day in 2020, with a daily transaction value exceeding HK$193.7 million, according to its annual report.
While the Octopus stored value facility (SVF) network has a higher number of daily transactions, a single Octopus card can only hold HK$3,000 at a time, after its limits were raised from HK$1,000 in April in conjunction with the city’s e-voucher programme.
Under the FPS system, a customer at HSBC, for example, can send up to HK$10,000 at a time using a QR code and up to HK$400,000 a day to selected merchants.
The four stored-value facility operators taking part in the scheme – Alipay HK, Octopus, Tap and Go and WeChat Pay HK – have seen more than 3 million new consumer accounts and more than 80,000 new merchant accounts including taxi drivers and wet markets since its debut, Chan said. About 6.3 million residents have received the vouchers, he added.
“The Hong Kong SAR government is actively working with mainland authorities to help the fintech industry seize the far-reaching opportunities,” he said. “These efforts are paying off.”
The scheme initially allows for a quota of 300 billion yuan (US$46.9 billion) in fund flows between Hong Kong and 10 cities in the bay area, marking a further opening up of the mainland’s financial system. Individual investors are limited to trading up to 1 million yuan on a net remittance basis.
However, the expectation is that the scheme could be a much larger contributor for banks and asset managers in the future as they seek to tap growing wealth in the region.
It will allow start-ups to test their products in a controlled environment, while receiving more timely feedback from regulators and expediting the launch of financial products, Chan said.