Is Hong Kong Ready for a FinTech Revolution?

[Sponsored article] Across the globe, FinTech promises to not only drive the creation of a wide range of new and more accessible financial services, but also promote more competition, improve customer experience and lower costs. All, potentially, very good news for consumers, but can Hong Kong claim a role as an international powerhouse when it comes to the development and deployment of FinTech?

FinTech’s possibilities

Professor K C Chan, the third and fourth term HKSAR Government’s Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury, notes that the term FinTech covers so many areas, products and services.

“Entirely new business models are now being developed, such as those built around peer-to-peer lending platforms and new insurance products sold online,” he explains. Parallel advances in the field of cybersecurity that include new ways to authenticate identity online, help to make these models possible.

He also cites the use of big data by banks and insurance companies seeking to achieve a better understanding of risk, and therefore make better pricing decisions, as other examples of FinTech’s possibilities.

Blockchain technology, or distributed ledger technology, first hit the headlines with the launch of digital currencies but, in recent years, interest in other applications has snowballed. The speed at which securities can be traded and mortgage loans approved, for example, may be transformed using blockchain.