When Alvin Kwock, co-founder of digital insurer OneDegree, took half within the inaugural Hong Kong FinTech Week in November 2016, it was held at a venue appropriate for only some hundred folks.
“Because it was the primary ever fintech occasion in Hong Kong, solely fintech start-ups had been , no large monetary establishments paid consideration,” Kwock stated. “Individuals didn’t have a transparent thought of fintech because it was nonetheless in an exploratory stage.”
Within the years since, fintech in Hong Kong has gone by means of a sea change. “Now fintech is not confined to a couple start-ups; it is on the highest of the agenda of banks and insurers,” Kwock stated.
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The venue has moved from the PMQ (previously the Police Married Quarters) to the huge Hong Kong Conference and Exhibition Centre, with the variety of attendees rising 18-fold to 45,000 folks. On the current discussion board, audio system included a number of the most high-profile figures within the monetary sector like HSBC CEO Georges Elhedery and Customary Chartered Financial institution CEO Invoice Winters.
HSBC CEO Georges Elhedery (left) takes half in a dialogue with Monetary Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po (centre) and Customary Chartered CEO on the Hong Kong FinTech Week on November 3. Photograph: Jonathan Wong alt=HSBC CEO Georges Elhedery (left) takes half in a dialogue with Monetary Secretary Paul Chan Mo-po (centre) and Customary Chartered CEO on the Hong Kong FinTech Week on November 3. Photograph: Jonathan Wong>
This maturation has intensified Hong Kong’s long-standing rivalry with Singapore. The 2 cities are competing to develop fintech, a rivalry highlighted this month as each hosted their tenth annual flagship fintech festivals.
Whereas attendance in Hong Kong might have been thinner than in Singapore, town has an edge over its Southeast Asian rival, due to its vibrant capital market offering funding for fintech corporations and serving as a gateway to the Higher Bay Space.
Hong Kong secured the world’s prime fintech rating for the primary time within the World Monetary Centres Index in September, whereas Singapore ranked fourth, in keeping with the report by Z/Yen and the Metropolis of London that tracked 116 centres based mostly on standards like laws, entry to finance and expertise.
Within the inaugural survey on fintech in 2017, Hong Kong ranked seventh and Singapore eighth. The identical yr, the Hong Kong Financial Authority (HKMA) launched the primary part of fintech growth.
Since then, the HKMA has issued eight digital banking licences, with the lenders providing online-only companies. This week, British digital financial institution Revolut introduced plans to launch operations in Hong Kong.
The arrival of worldwide gamers is a direct results of a concerted regulatory push – the HKMA’s fintech initiatives, the Insurance coverage Authority‘s promotion of digital insurance coverage, and the Securities and Futures Fee‘s guidelines for digital asset buying and selling. Bourse operator Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing’s itemizing reforms too have paved the way in which for start-ups to boost funds.
“Hong Kong’s fintech growth prior to now decade has been nothing in need of transformative,” stated HKMA chief govt Eddie Yue Wai-man in a written interview. The 18-fold improve within the variety of members on this yr’s FinTech Week in contrast with 9 years in the past was “proof not solely of rising curiosity but additionally of a hub that has change into a magnet for expertise, concepts and ambition in fintech”, he stated.
Nonetheless, a broader measure of digital competitiveness reveals ongoing challenges. Regardless of Hong Kong’s many benefits, Singapore ranked third and Hong Kong fourth within the 2025 World Digital Competitiveness Rating launched earlier this month.
The report, nonetheless, famous that Hong Kong carried out the worst in “IT integration”, putting twenty ninth general, resulting from low scores in authorities cybersecurity capability and authorized framework for privateness safety.
Singapore, which topped the rating in 2024, fell behind Switzerland and the US this yr.
The report stated Singapore was robust in its digital regulatory framework and hi-tech patent grants, topping these classes. The institute additionally highlighted Singapore’s weak spot in two areas, the place it ranked twenty ninth in know-how, media and telecommunications inventory market capitalisation and 61st in telecommunications funding.
Analysts and fintech corporations regard Singapore and Hong Kong as Asian fintech leaders, albeit with completely different roles.
“Singapore gives a extra accessible pathway for regional growth throughout Asean, whereas Hong Kong’s aggressive energy stays carefully tied to the China-Hong Kong hall and its management in regulated digital-asset innovation,” stated Benjamin Quinlan, CEO and managing companion of Quinlan & Associates, a Hong Kong-based consultancy.
Quinlan stated Hong Kong had additionally made progress in digital asset and tokenisation initiatives, together with the approaching stablecoin regime and tokenised authorities bond issuance, which offered a singular aggressive angle on this rising sector.
Singapore, against this, had positioned itself as a launch pad for the Affiliation of Southeast Asian Nations, whereas the nation had a clear regulatory surroundings and was innovation-friendly, supported by comparatively decrease obstacles to entry and a powerful investor urge for food, Quinlan stated.
The HKMA’s Yue stated the gateway position to mainland China would proceed to be a significant benefit for Hong Kong’s fintech growth, as corporations took benefit of cross-border buying and selling schemes in shares, bonds, swaps, exchange-traded merchandise and wealth administration.
Yue added that the event of fintech had benefited many sectors like digital banks, whereas additionally making it simpler for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to get financial institution loans by way of the Business Information Interchange (CDI).
The CDI, which was launched in October 2022 as a part of the HKMA’s Fintech 2025 technique, is a monetary knowledge platform designed to make it simpler for companies, particularly SMEs, to entry monetary companies. The CDI had facilitated over 71,000 mortgage functions totalling HK$58.1 billion (US$7.5 billion) for SMEs till the tip of September.
“Consider a wonton noodle store that might use the CDI to share its historic turnover knowledge from point-of-sale terminals with a financial institution, which might then use this various knowledge for a extra correct credit score evaluation and mortgage approval, all with out requiring conventional collateral,” Yue stated. “We’re additionally advancing commerce finance digitalisation by means of CargoX to help SME merchants in a fancy international commerce panorama.”
Venture CargoX is a public-private collaboration led by the HKMA to make use of cargo and commerce knowledge to enhance commerce finance.
The HKMA’s Quicker Cost System has over 18 million customers. Photograph: Handout alt=The HKMA’s Quicker Cost System has over 18 million customers. Photograph: Handout>
One of many HKMA’s first fintech initiatives was the launch of the Quicker Cost System in 2018, with the platform at present boasting greater than 18 million customers. This was adopted by licences for eight digital banks in 2019.
Even in a market with greater than 150 lenders, these digital banks had 3.4 million clients, with HK$77 billion in deposits and HK$29 billion in loans as of June, in keeping with the HKMA.
To construct on this decade of progress and solidify Hong Kong’s future place, Yue unveiled the Fintech 2030 highway map this month. The five-year programme will launch greater than 40 initiatives in 4 areas: knowledge, synthetic intelligence, resilience and tokenisation.
Town has additionally incubated some outstanding fintech unicorns – start-ups with a valuation of not less than US$1 billion – like Airwallex, HashKey Group, WeLab, Micro Join and ZA Group.
Hong Kong at present has greater than 1,200 fintech corporations, a ten per cent improve from final yr, with the sector’s income anticipated to exceed US$606 billion by 2032, in keeping with a current report by the Monetary Providers Improvement Council.
Revolut is a worldwide disrupter with over 65 million shoppers and has a powerful presence within the US, Europe and Asia, so including Hong Kong was the following cease within the growth, stated Camilo Ramirez, head of economic companies at Sia Companions Hong Kong, a consultancy.
“Whereas Hong Kong appears like a saturated market, it nonetheless lags behind in digital capabilities in contrast with Europe and mainland China,” Ramirez stated. “With the HKMA launching the fintech highway map, Revolut would land in an ideal surroundings to convey its modern capabilities to Hong Kong at a pivotal and thrilling second for the monetary companies trade.”
Alvin Kwock, co-founder of on-line insurer OneDegree. Photograph: Handout alt=Alvin Kwock, co-founder of on-line insurer OneDegree. Photograph: Handout>
One Diploma’s Kwock stated the conversations round fintech had continued to evolve at FinTech Week. Initially, it was about exploring the usage of fintech, which later shifted to digital banks, digital insurance coverage and digital belongings buying and selling, earlier than shifting to AI this yr, he stated.
“Cybersecurity can be a key situation going ahead as town turns into a virtual-asset buying and selling hub,” Kwock stated.
In the meantime, home-grown fintechs like WeLab have been utilizing their early-mover benefit to good use by increasing in Southeast Asia.
WeLab serves 70 million clients by way of its WeLend on-line lending platform and two digital banks in Hong Kong and Indonesia, WeLab Financial institution and Financial institution Saqu, respectively.
“Positioned on the nexus of two main progress corridors – northbound to the Higher Bay Space and mainland China, and southbound to the quickly rising and digitally transformative markets of Southeast Asia, Hong Kong acts as a pure springboard for regional fintech growth,” stated Simon Loong, founder and group CEO of WeLab.
Fintech has additionally reworked one among Hong Kong’s oldest banks. The 160-year-old HSBC has seen a rise in digital use throughout all banking transactions.
“We’re already a completely digital financial institution, prioritising digital channels to ship each day banking companies and have interaction with our clients,” stated Maggie Ng, CEO and head of retail banking and wealth at HSBC Hong Kong.
Ng stated HSBC would participate within the HKMA’s Fintech 2030 initiatives. The financial institution had already launched tokenised deposits for patrons, and its digital asset platform, HSBC Orion, was used to launch the world’s largest digital bond issuance by the Hong Kong authorities this month, she stated.
The financial institution not too long ago launched HSBC Gold Token, a tokenised gold product for retail clients in Hong Kong.
Additionally this month, Hong Kong and Shenzhen launched a joint fintech motion plan to advertise cross-boundary monetary innovation, setting a goal of building over 20 fintech software situations by the tip of 2027. Secretary for Monetary Providers and the Treasury Christopher Hui Ching-yu, who signed the preliminary pact with Shenzhen, stated the 2 sides would implement numerous initiatives to facilitate high-quality fintech growth.
Paul Sin, chair of the web3 and know-how committee for Higher China at CPA Australia, an accounting trade physique, stated Hong Kong’s Fintech 2030 initiative offered a transparent highway map for the following 5 years.
One component that Hong Kong wanted to develop was a decentralised id (DID) system, which might enable monetary corporations to simply confirm customers’ identities.
“Solely when corporations can simply confirm shoppers’ identities utilizing know-how like DID can fintech options be each modern and compliant,” Sin stated.
