The Director of the Monetary Companies and the Treasury Bureau, Xu Zhengyu, believes that AI, blockchain and tokenization are the way forward for Hong Kong’s fintech trade, because the Chinese language particular administrative area (SAR) celebrates a decade of regular development in its FinTech ecosystem.
The Director of the Monetary Companies and the Treasury Bureau, Xu Zhengyu, stated that Hong Kong’s FinTech ecosystem has grown significantly in each dimension and high quality within the ten years for the reason that institution of Hong Kong’s Monetary Know-how Week.
A decade of FinTech improvement in Hong Kong
Chatting with the media after attending a morning radio program on November 8, Xu stated the variety of startups in Hong Kong has tripled over the previous decade, rising from about 1,600 ten years in the past to just about 5,000 right this moment.
Xu additionally identified that the variety of FinTech corporations has reached round 1,200, representing a constant year-on-year development.
“These are quantitative modifications,” he stated, “however we will additionally see qualitative modifications because the ecosystem turns into richer and extra mature.”
Xu gave credit score to the Hong Kong authorities’s initiatives, saying that they supported this FinTech development. The authorities issued two main declarations on digital and digital property, and one declaration on synthetic intelligence, encouraging fast responses and powerful participation from the personal sector.
AI, blockchain, and tokenization
Based on Xu, the present section of FinTech improvement in Hong Kong is being formed by synthetic intelligence (AI), blockchain, and tokenization.
He defined that many firms and monetary establishments at the moment are on the lookout for methods to make use of these applied sciences in conventional monetary merchandise. For instance, tokenization brings in regular revenue streams from issues like electrical charging stations or property leases that may be became funding merchandise.
“There are additionally pilot initiatives that have a look at flip long-term rental revenue into safe and genuine funding alternatives utilizing blockchain,” Xu stated. “These are very concrete examples displaying how FinTech is being carried out in real-world situations.”
Xu acknowledged that the long run will possible be stuffed with extra firms which might be discovering revolutionary methods to use rising applied sciences to monetary companies. He believes the adoption of AI, blockchain, and tokenized property is not going to solely make markets extra environment friendly but additionally create new alternatives for each traders and companies.
Nonetheless coping with the JPEX crypto rip-off fallout
Throughout his dialog with the media, the 2023 JPEX cryptocurrency case, through which the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Fee (SFC) accused JPEX of working and not using a license and deceptive traders, got here up.
The platform allegedly promised unusually excessive returns on digital asset merchandise, which attracted 1000’s of native traders. Then, withdrawals have been all of the sudden restricted, and plenty of customers discovered they might not entry their funds. This incident led to losses exceeding HK$1.5 billion (about US$190 million).
It has been described as Hong Kong’s largest monetary fraud involving digital property. Following the scandal, police made a number of arrests related to the platform, together with the influencers who had promoted JPEX.
Xu was requested concerning the case’s implications for traders. He began by acknowledging that the fast development of FinTech additionally brings challenges. He famous that there’s usually a niche in public understanding of latest applied sciences and monetary merchandise, which may result in confusion or misuse.
“Whether or not it’s day by day investor training or the rollout of latest monetary merchandise, there’ll all the time be variations in understanding throughout the market,” he stated. “That’s the reason we should proceed to strengthen training and consciousness amongst traders.”
