Hong Kong FinTech Week: Highlights from 2022
Hong Kong Fintech Weekthe city’s flagship fintech event, took place from 31 October to 4 November at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.
Themed “Pushing Boundaries, Reaping Benefits”, the five-day event attracted more than 20,000 attendees from over 80 global economies, and focused on the emergence of Web3 and metaverse technologies.
The conference
Opens HKFTW2022 Paul Chanfinancial secretary i Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR)outlined a series of measures to develop the virtual asset industry in the city that is driving its growth as an international cryptocurrency hub.
He said: “Our policy stance on virtual assets has now been clearly communicated to the global markets, and it serves to demonstrate our commitment and determination to explore financial innovations alongside the global virtual asset community.”
Chan was succeeded on the global stage by Eddie Yue, managing director i Hong Kong Monetary Authority. He described how fintechs in the region are developing with rapidly developing blockchain protocols to create products or services through crypto, stablecoins, NFTs, DeFi and metaverse.
“Over time, it has proven that these innovations, especially the technologies and business innovation that underpin them, are here to stay and will naturally evolve in a healthy financial system like Hong Kong’s. They have the potential to improve efficiency, reduce intermediate costs and promote innovation.”
On day two, Algernon Yau, Secretary for Trade and Economic Development of the HKSAR, mentioned in his opening speech how funding support has been fundamental for SMEs to grow, and for fintech startups and businesses to scale. While Clement Cheungmanaging director i The Norwegian Insurance Authoritydescribed insurtech as a driver of transformation.
HKFTW 2022 Highlights
On day one, organizer Finoverse (previously FINNOVASIA) revealed the expansion to North America, the Middle East and the scaling up to Web3. This follows a collaboration with Securities Commission of the Bahamas and the government of the Bahamas, to host a global fintech and Web3 festival on January 24-26, 2023 in Nassau.
To highlight its expansion and growth, the company also announces the completion of a comprehensive rebranding effort unveiling its new brand identity, logo and name – Finoverse. The new brand represents the new chapter for the company, which has been driving the growth of Hong Kong’s and Asia’s fintech ecosystem since 2015.
The HKMA revealed it would use an anti-money laundering (AML) tool suptech, using granular data from multiple banks for the first time, to test how network analysis on mule accounts can help understand how and where risks move across the banking sector, in to prevent bank accounts from being misused for fraud and protect customers against financial crime losses.
The HKMA is also piloting a tokenized green government bond issue to test the use of distributed ledger technology to issue bonds in Hong Kong.
