Financial Secretary Paul Chan opened this year’s Hong Kong Fintech Week with an upbeat speech. It highlighted Hong Kong’s ranking by the 2020 FM Global Resilience Index as Asia’s most resilient economy and that, according to the IMD World Digital Competitiveness Ranking, Hong Kong is the number two amongst Asian economies.
What’s more, in the first seven months of this year, more than 20 Hong Kong-based start-ups raised almost US$500m in venture funding, and as of August, eight virtual banks and four virtual insurers, as well as a virtual asset trading company, have been authorised, or granted in-principle agreement, to operate in Hong Kong.
The FinTech Innovation Lab Asia-Pacific also got a shout out in the speech, named as one of the leading accelerators in the city.
Facilitated by Accenture, the FinTech Innovation Lab Asia-Pacific is a 12-week mentoring accelerator and incubator programme which brings together leading financial services institutions, angel investors and venture capital firms to provide start ups with the opportunity to work with future customers, perfect propositions, gain insights to the banking industry and build strong relationships.
One of the week’s main panels was made up of Claire Calmejane, Chief Innovation Officer at Societe Generale; Jeff Tijssen, Global Head of Consulting at 11FS; and, Nigel Verdon, co-founder and CEO of Railsbank. Their discussion points included the European banking model, the impact of Covid-19 and digital currencies. Verdon is also a mentor at the Fintech Innovation Lab.
