Hong Kong Fintech Week, the city’s flagship fintech event, took place from 31 October to 4 November at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre.
With the theme of ‘Pushing Boundaries, Reaping Benefits’, the five-day event attracted more than 20,000 attendees from over 80 global economies putting a focus on the rise of Web3 and metaverse technologies.
The conference
Opening HKFTW2022 Paul Chan, Financial Secretary of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR), outlined a range of measures to develop the virtual assets industry in the city driving its growth as an international cryptocurrency hub.
He said: “Our policy stance on virtual assets is now clearly communicated to the global markets and it serves to demonstrate our commitment and determination to explore financial innovations together with the global virtual-asset community.”
Chan was followed onto the global stage by Eddie Yue, chief executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. He described how fintechs in the region are progressing with fast-evolving blockchain protocols to create products or services through crypto, stablecoins, NFTs, DeFi and the metaverse.
“Over time, it has become apparent that these innovations, in particular the technologies and business innovation underpinning them, are here to stay and will naturally develop in a healthy financial system like Hong Kong’s. They have the potential to improve efficiencies, reduce intermediary cost and promote innovation.”
On day two, Algernon Yau, Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development of HKSAR, mentioned in his opening keynote address how funding support has been fundamental for SMEs to grow, and for fintech startups and enterprises to scale. While Clement Cheung, CEO of Insurance Authority, described insurtech as a driver of transformation.
HKFTW 2022 Highlights
On day one, organiser Finoverse (previously FINNOVASIA) revealed its expansion into North America, the Middle East and the scale up into Web3. This follows a partnership with The Securities Commission of The Bahamas and Government of The Bahamas, to host a global fintech and Web3 Festival on 24 to 26 January 2023 in Nassau.
Highlighting the expansion and growth, the company also announces the completion of an extensive rebranding effort unveiling its new brand identity, logo and name – Finoverse. The new brand represents the new chapter for the company, which has driven the growth of Hong Kong’s and Asia’s fintech ecosystem since 2015.
HKMA revealed it would employ an anti-money laundering (AML) suptech tool, using granular data from multiple banks for the first time, to test how network analysis on mule accounts can assist in understanding how and where risks move across the banking sector, in order to prevent bank accounts from being abused for fraud and protect customers from financial crime losses.
The HKMA is also piloting a tokenised government green bond issuance to test out the use of distributed ledger technology to issue bonds in Hong Kong.
