Fintech sandbox and innovation hub for Hong Kong
Brand boost plan
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) is planning to launch a regulatory sandbox and innovation hub as part of ambitions to boost its fintech brand.
At the Treasury Markets Summit 2016, jointly organised by the HKMA and the Treasury Markets Association (TMA), Norman Chan, chief executive of the HKMA, says it wants to build a “brand” and “become even more relevant and important in capturing opportunities arising from mainland China’s belt and road strategy and fintech innovations”.
Chan warned that it is “wrong for us to feel complacent” and the “fact that we are good and competitive now does not mean we will remain so in the future”.
He compared it to “rowing a boat upstream, you either move forward or you drift backward”.
In terms of the hub, it will be for “big and small institutions alike” and Chan cited biometrics, big data and regtech as examples of future initiatives.
The “Fintech Supervisory Sandbox” will be for banks to “conduct testing and trial of newly developed technologies and applications on a pilot basis”.
The summit was attended by over 350 local and overseas participants, including representatives from regulatory authorities, the government, treasury market practitioners, asset owners and managers as well as senior executives and professionals from banks, other financial institutions and corporates.
