Press Release

Media coverage on Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) ’s announcement on setting up of HKMA-ASTRI Fintech Innovation Hub (the Fintech Innovation Hub) on 6 September 2016.

In his opening remarks of the TMA Summit today, Chief Executive of the HKMA Mr. Normal T.L. Chan announced that it will collaborate with ASTRI to set up the “HKMA-ASTRI Fintech Innovation Hub” (the Fintech Innovation Hub).

Mr. Chan said, “First, I am pleased to announce that the HKMA will collaborate with the Applied Science and Technology Research Institute (ASTRI) to set up the “Fintech Innovation Hub”. It will be equipped with all necessary system and support resources to enable players of the banking and payment industry to conduct proof of concept trials of products and services through the use of new technologies, and do it safely – as this controlled environment is separated from their internal systems. Also, the Fintech Innovation Hub allows regulators to provide early inputs to the trial works before the actual implementation. While some of the largest banks have built their own laboratories, this new Fintech Innovation Hub will cater for the big and small institutions alike such that the industry as a whole would be able to adopt new technologies more speedily and in a more collaborative manner.

Among its potential uses, this Fintech Innovation Hub, as a neutral testing ground, will be ideal for two types of activities. First, industry players can test new Fintech solutions which involve the collaboration of multiple parties and are intended to be commonly adopted in the industry. A good example is biometric authentication. New concepts in various facial or voice recognition techniques could be demonstrated by the developers in the Fintech Innovation Hub to gather feedback from potential users and to receive regulatory guidance from supervisors at an early stage. This should help shorten the time-to-market of useful industry-wide solutions. Second, I envisage that the Fintech Innovation Hub will also benefit the HKMA. In this place, we could explore with innovators options and possibilities of using new technologies, such as Big Data Analytics and other “regtech” initiatives, to achieve our objectives more effectively without creating undue risks or burden for our internal systems or databases.”

ASTRI is now working closely with HKMA on finalising details of the set-up and the mode of operation of the Hub.

For more information and media coverage of the collaboration, please refer to the following:

Welcoming remarks and keynote speech at Treasury Markets Summit 2016 by Norman T.L. Chan, Chief Executive, Hong Kong Monetary Authority (Source: HKMA)

金融科技︰金管局為銀行提供平台及試驗場 (in Chinese Only) (Source: Oriental Daily)

金管局2部曲助金融科技創新 (in Chinese Only) (Source: Oriental Daily)

金管局將推出新措施促進金融科技 (in Chinese Only) (Source: Yahoo News)

陳德霖:金管局推兩金融科技促進措施 (in Chinese Only) (Source: Hong Kong Economic Journal)

陳德霖不同意香港金融科技發展落後於人 (in Chinese Only) (Source: Hong Kong Economic Journal)

金管局夥應科院設金融科技創新中心 數周內公布細節 (in Chinese Only) (Source: metroradio.com.hk)

陳德霖指將推兩項措施以推動金融科技服務發展 (in Chinese Only) (Source: metroradio.com.hk)

大陸金融：陳德霖稱，將推金融科技監管沙盤及科技創新中心推動金融科技服務  (in Chinese Only)  (Source: Money Link)

馮孝忠：政府助業界防金融科技犯罪 利本港金融科技發展  (in Chinese Only)  (Source: Yahoo News)

馮孝忠：業界共同開發及共享大數據有助防範金融犯罪  (in Chinese Only)  (Source: Yahoo News)

金管局：創新中心可方便局方於測試中提供初步指引 (in Chinese Only)  (Source: Yahoo News)

金管局：金融科技沙盒有助銀行加快推出金融科技新服務 (in Chinese Only)  (Source: Yahoo News)

金管局促金融科技發展 推科技創新中心及監管用途之「沙盒」(in Chinese Only)  (Source: Quamnet.com)

恒生馮孝忠：金管局推Fintech新措施 料有助業界集中資源  (in Chinese Only)  (Source: Quamnet.com)

金管局：將建立金融科投資創新中心，不認同本港金融科技落後 (in Chinese Only)  (Source: ET Net)

金管局：金融科技創新中心設於科學園，用作測試多方技術 (in Chinese Only)  (Source: ET Net)

金融科技創新中心未來數周投入運作 (in Chinese Only)  (Source: news.rthk.hk)

陳德霖：金管局今推兩金融科技倡議 (in Chinese Only)  (Source: www.finet.hk)

聲音認證？陳德霖：設金融科技創新中心研究 (in Chinese Only)  (Source: Apple Daily)

HKMA embraces FinTech as it burnishes Hong Kong’s brand to compete as Asia’s financial hub (Source: www.scmp.com)

Letter to all Authorised Institutions – HKMA-ASTRI Fintech Innovation Hub   (Source: HKMA)

Letter to all SVF Licensees  – HKMA-ASTRI Fintech Innovation Hub  (Source: HKMA)

ASTRI’s Vice President, Financial Technologies Dr. Duncan Wong is invited to be a speaker at the Capital Markets Blockchains 2016 to be held on 13 September 2016 at Marco Polo Hongkong Hotel, Hong Kong. Dr. Wong will share his insights on ASTRI’s blockchain technologies in the session of “Ask the regulators: Hong Kong’s environment for FinTech and Blockchain”.

For the seminar details, please refer to http://www.euromoneyseminars.com/details/9061/capital-markets-blockchains-2016/details.html