Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation (HKSTP) launched its new FinTech Centre located at the InnoCentre in Kowloon Tong to accelerate cross-industry innovation and forge the new era of financial services. This reflects HKSTP’s ongoing commitment to reinforcing Hong Kong’s global leadership as an international financial hub through innovation and technology.
FinTech Centre is the latest addition to the evolving InnoCentre and a key pillar in HKSTP’s growing Fin+Tech ecosystem. The close-knit ecosystem brings financial institutions, regulators and academics, together with fintech startups and companies focusing on extensive R&D in Hong Kong and globally.
The CEO at HKSTP stated that fintech is a strategic focus for HKSTP. Their vision is to nurture the best possible Fin+Tech ecosystem, which has seen rapid growth in recent years. The FinTech Centre’s launch is a new chapter in Hong Kong’s path to be a world-leading fintech hub. Our fintech companies will create the advanced technologies necessary for the financial sector to build a new era of financial services in Hong Kong, Greater Bay Area and beyond.
The Centre will provide a focal point for different stakeholders to collaborate with fintech companies and co-create projects for the financial sector that harness advanced technologies including artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, cybersecurity and data analytics. The Centre will also serve as a base for business matching, a soft-landing for overseas fintech companies, talent nurturing, laboratory and proof-of-concept trials.
The launch is one of several HKSTP-led initiatives to drive fintech collaboration and co-creation in 2021.
Building Next-Generation Banking Services
HKSTP is also rolling out its Banking Virtual Lab which aims to accelerate fintech innovation. The virtual lab hosts synthetic banking data and relevant APIs in partnership with financial institutions. This will make it easier for developers and banks to work together to rapidly develop, test and validate new APIs and solutions against synthetic data.
As the lab’s first partner, a bank, has already contributed synthetic data and will create a sandbox to collaborate with innovators to address specific business pain points.
The CEO of the bank stated that it welcomes new initiatives that will drive innovation in fintech; supporting HKSTP in the development of its Banking Virtual Lab by contributing synthetic banking data, with the aims of creating a cross-industry ecosystem on the data platform, deepening collaboration with fintech companies, and accelerating the speed of development and success rate of these collaborations.
The collective initiative will help drive the continued development of Hong Kong’s banking industry and generate more opportunities to work with fintech companies on the co-creation of customer-centric products that meet the evolving needs of our customers.
Fast-Tracking Corporate Innovation
Another major initiative is the Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance (BFSI) Accelerator under HKSTP’s Global Acceleration Academy (GAA), announced at the Asian Financial Forum on 19 January 2021. This will fast-track corporate innovation across the BFSI sectors and address the sectors’ critical pain points by developing solutions through co-creation.
The Accelerator will match financial corporates with HKSTP’s 1000-strong network of technology ventures to enhance operational efficiency, customer experience, wealth management, regulation and compliance.
The Accelerator is supported by industry leaders including the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) via the HKMA-HKSTP Fin+Tech Collaboration Platform, Insurance Authority, InvestHK, Hong Kong Association of Banks (HKAB) and the Hong Kong Institute of Bankers (HKIB). It is carried out in collaboration with 17 BFSI corporates.
Fintech Innovation Hub
Another key development is the establishment of a new Fintech Innovation Hub (FIH) at the FinTech Centre. A collaboration between Hong Kong Applied Science and Technology Research Institute (ASTRI), HKMA and HKSTP, the FIH will serve as a neutral ground for collaboration between financial institutions, technology companies, corporations, universities and government bodies for idea exploration, proof of concept and prototype development, technology testing as well as education and demo purposes.
The Chief Operating Officer and acting Co-CEO at ASTRI stated that as Hong Kong’s largest applied science and technology research institute and having fintech as one of our focus areas of application, research and development, ASTRI is constantly finding ways to benefit the entire financial industry and help drive the sector’s growth into a new era.
The establishment of the FIH marks another milestone and the agency looks forward to an even closer collaboration with HKMA, HKSTP and other stakeholders to support and promote the continued growth of our thriving fintech ecosystem.
