Hong Kong Monetary Authority (hereinafter referred to as the "Hong Kong Monetary Authority") issued the revised guideline "Recognition of Virtual Banks" in 2018 and officially issued the first batch of virtual bank licenses in 2019, which is a milestone for Hong Kong to enter a new era of " smart bank ". In addition to bringing convenient and diversified experiences to enterprises and citizens, promoting the digitalization of banking services has also promoted the rapid development of Hong Kong's financial technology (FinTech). This group of new market participants have successively launched new products that meet different user experiences, such as quick account opening experience, virtual deduction cards, bank card consumption rebates, deposit-linked loan products, buy first and pay later, etc., to stimulate Hong Kong's financial technology and traditional financial industry to continue to innovate.
WeLabHuili Group is a fintech startup growing in Hong Kong. Its WeLab Bank is the fourth virtual bank in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to be licensed by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. Professor Chen Jiaqiang, a senior consultant of WeLab Group and chairman of WeLab Bank, said in an exclusive interview with the Hong Kong Economic Daily that with Hong Kong's business experience, the talent pool of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the huge mainland market, can WeLab grow, allowing its business to go out of Hong Kong, enter the mainland, and even develop into the Southeast Asian market. As Hong Kong SAR Government further promotes Hong Kong to become an international innovation and technology center, the development of financial technology has also shown its importance. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority launched the "Financial Technology 2025" strategy last year, and also launched the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Fintech Talent Development Plan in July this year, striving to cultivate financial technology talents.
WeLabHuili Group Senior Advisor and Chairman of WeLab Bank (Huili Bank) Professor Chen Jiaqiang
reflects the concept of inclusive finance and focuses on individual consumer customers
Hong Kong Economic Daily: Since the Hong Kong Monetary Authority issued a virtual bank license in 2019, according to your observation, what has Hong Kong people changed their acceptance of virtual banks? What changes have virtual banks brought to the traditional financial industry?
Chen Jiaqiang: After appeared in virtual banks, the whole society was very concerned about what financial technology and electronic payments were, and suddenly more people knew about financial technology. From then on, Volkswagen took the initiative to use electronic finance platforms, and traditional banks followed this pace, which further led the entire banking industry to digitalization.
Let’s take the simplest loan as an example. In the past, it took a lot of time, documents and approval procedures. Using financial technology, citizens can complete the entire application on mobile applications, and the approval procedures are also simplified. In addition to loan business, insurance claims can also be processed quickly. In addition to being fast, financial technology also brings an intelligent experience. We can use financial technology to help customers manage wealth intelligently, such as integrating different loans and reducing the required interest.
Hong Kong Economic Daily: United Nations launched the concept of inclusive finance in 2005. Some market opinions point out that virtual banks can help improve inclusive finance and improve services. What do you think about this?
Chen Jiaqiang: We initially advocated financial technology, hoping to achieve inclusive finance and make financial services and financial management services more popular. There are many banks in Hong Kong that can easily provide services such as cash deposits, transfers and payments, but many middle-class and high-income people have financial management needs, but there is no corresponding financial management service package. The popularity of financial management services is also one of the manifestations of inclusive finance.
On the other hand, we also noticed the demand in Southeast Asian markets, for example, in Indonesia , 77% of the 270 million local population never or only use limited banking services. We believe that digital banking services can help this group of neglected people, so in addition to Hong Kong's virtual banking business, WeLab has also entered the Indonesian market in recent years and has even recently completed the acquisition of a local bank to prepare to provide digital banking services to the local area.
Hong Kong Economic Daily: WeLab Bank was issued a virtual bank license in 2019. After three years, it has developed more scale.Virtual banks in the market have their own positioning or characteristics. What aspects do you think virtual banks should develop in the future?
Chen Jiaqiang: Each virtual bank also has its own business policy and launches corresponding services for different consumer behaviors. WeLab Bank focuses on financial management and loan needs of individual consumers, especially young groups. We noticed that this group of customers has a financial management need but does not have professional financial management knowledge. Nearly 70% of them don’t know how to achieve their savings and investment goals, and 700% of them don’t know what they are investing in. So we have become the first fully digital bank in Asia to promote intelligent financial advisory services. Regardless of the amount of investment of customers, it can help them lock in their goals and investment directions. In the future, we will also provide financial management, manage cash flow , and develop personal long-term savings goals for young customers. As a fintech company, I believe that using fintech can help customers, bring knowledge to customers, and help them achieve their goals.
Hong Kong Monetary Authority issued the first batch of virtual banking licenses in 2019. ( Hong Kong Economic Daily data picture)
"Make a bigger" technology industry Link Greater Bay Area market
Hong Kong Economic Daily: In recent years, the Hong Kong SAR government has actively promoted the development of science and technology innovation, and the financial industry has always been the economic pillar of Hong Kong. How do you think the two have become the new engine of Hong Kong's economic development?
Chen Jiaqiang: The development of innovative technology ("Science and Technology Innovation") has two benefits to Hong Kong. First, promoting scientific and technological development is what should be done. The world can also see the benefits brought by the development of scientific and technological innovation to the economy. It is completely correct for Hong Kong to promote scientific and technological innovation. Because Hong Kong is the international financial center , financial technology is the most important thing to promote in the process of promoting the development of science and technology.
Second, in addition to financial technology, there are many technologies that can be developed in Hong Kong, such as artificial intelligence , biotechnology, etc. With the support of the central government, the Hong Kong SAR government has developed Hong Kong into an innovation base, which can leverage the innovation resources of the entire Greater Bay Area and the capabilities of the Hong Kong market to "grow" in all aspects. As a fintech businessman, I hope this will happen. Because if technology can be made big, it can generate a lot of talent intersection and synergy effects, and financial technology companies will also benefit.
Hong Kong Economic Daily: The development of financial technology is imperative. How do you evaluate Hong Kong's development in this regard?
Chen Jiaqiang: Hong Kong regulators, such as The HKMA , actively promotes the development of financial technology in virtual banks, compliance technology (RegTech), and other aspects, have brought great changes to Hong Kong. Hong Kong has already taken the lead in Asia in the digitalization of finance. First of all, the issuance of virtual banking licenses in Hong Kong is an important step in promoting the development of financial technology, so as to drive the digitalization of the entire banking industry. Hong Kong has also launched virtual banks ahead of other Asian markets such as Taiwan, , Singapore , etc. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority also has relatively comprehensive plans for the development strategies of compliant technology and financial technology. On the digital currency , whether it is the digital RMB tried to issue by the state or the "digital Hong Kong dollar" of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, it is also leading in the Asian region.
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority promotes the development of financial technology. The benefit is that in addition to achieving inclusive finance, it will also lay the foundation for future financial technology connections with the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Measures such as " Cross-border Financial Management Connect " can be successfully launched because of the development of financial technology, otherwise it will be difficult for regulatory agencies to supervise.
Use the experience of the Greater Bay Area to develop Southeast Asian markets
Hong Kong Economic Daily: Hong Kong’s positioning in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area is to develop into an international science and technology innovation center. What do you think the synergistic effect between Hong Kong and the Greater Bay Area will help the growth of financial technology companies?
Chen Jiaqiang: Compared with some large companies, WeLab is still a smaller company. But because of the Greater Bay Area, WeLab can grow to its current scale.With the Hong Kong market alone, our development may be very narrow, so WeLab opened our business points in the Greater Bay Area in the early days to provide technological services to the huge mainland market, so the Greater Bay Area stronghold is very important.
We mainly use mainland scientific and technological talents, and also develop business with mainland partners to give full play to the effectiveness of 1+1 greater than 2. Next, in addition to having virtual banks in Hong Kong, we also have digital banking services in Indonesia. We will bring this set of "assets" to Indonesia to develop with the resources of the Greater Bay Area, together with our experience in banking in Hong Kong, and the issuance of a virtual bank license and a regulated "signature" in Hong Kong. Indonesia has a huge customer base, which is an example of how the Greater Bay Area can expand our influence: in addition to going north to the mainland, it can also go south to Southeast Asia to develop. The united power of Hong Kong and other cities in the Greater Bay Area is great.
WeLab has set up a technology R&D center in Qianhai . (Picture provided by the interviewee)
Hong Kong Economic Daily: In the past few years, there has been a shortage of financial technology talents. As Hong Kong colleges and universities offer financial technology-related courses and have closer cooperation with the mainland, has the shortage of talents been alleviated?
Chen Jiaqiang: As a Hong Kong financial technology company, our primary talent is to discover in Hong Kong. We also continue to hire and provide training, cooperate with universities to provide internship opportunities, etc., hoping to cultivate talents in Hong Kong and help develop business.
But we have not hired enough local talents to develop technology and business, so we need help from the mainland, and the biggest asset that the Greater Bay Area brings to WeLab is talent. Many of our technological research and development are in the Greater Bay Area. We initially built a science and technology development base in Nanshan, Shenzhen and settled in Qianhai. Recently, we also established a research and development base in Guangzhou. We use talents from Shenzhen and Guangzhou to help us develop science and technology. The whole world is also facing the situation of insufficient talents. Everyone is competing for talents. In addition to cultivating them in their own places, they also need to explore them in other markets. We believe that in addition to the Greater Bay Area, we will also find talents in Indonesia in the near future to help develop the local market.
Hong Kong Economic Daily: You have served as the Secretary for Financial Affairs and Treasury of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government. You are currently the Senior Advisor of WeLab Huili Group and Chairman of the Board of Directors of WeLab Bank. You have witnessed the development of the financial industry from tradition to innovation. What are your personal experiences?
Chen Jiaqiang: used to be a government official. When considering financial policies, the vision should be very macro, such as market supervision behavior, market fluctuations, etc. At that time, I was also very concerned about financial technology and felt that it was a trend to master.
To this day, I joined a financial technology company. The main idea is how to use what I know, ideas, products and experience to "implement" to help customers. It can be said that it is very realistic. I used to know a lot about many financial products , but these products may not be suitable for individual customers. also has a lot of room for improvement in product development. We can turn good products, products that were used by only high-income customers in the past, into ordinary people who can also use them.
I think financial technology is not the patent of young people aged 20 to 40 who like technology. The key is that the first people who accept this new thing are generally younger, and traditional bank customers can also be our potential customers. But everything must be done step by step. When virtual banks become trends, more people know each other. If we provide our own services and make us the mainstream of the market, we can naturally attract other customers to choose us.
Hong Kong Economic Daily
Coordination: Zhang Zhihui, Zhu Zhen, Liu Lili
Writing: Liu Lili, intern Wu Ziyin
Video: Ma Jinhui, Huang Yaowen, Wu Junbiao
Photography: Chen Guofeng
