On September 28, Ant Bank (Hong Kong), a subsidiary of Ant Group, officially opened.

It is understood that Ant Bank (Hong Kong) provides 24-hour e-banking services to Hong Kong people, which is characterized by opening accounts on mobile phones in as little as 3 minutes, using local money transfer services, and launching demand savings deposits with an annual interest rate of up to 2.5%, followed by the introduction of financial services for small and medium-sized enterprises.

Since March 2019, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority has issued eight virtual banking licenses, and the first trial operation of Hong Kong Zhongan Bank began in late March this year. Up to now, brokerage Chinese reporters have not fully counted that five virtual banks, namely, Hong Kong Star Bank (major shareholder is XIAOMI), Ping an Yitong Bank, LiviVB, and Ant Bank (Hong Kong), have been opened in Hong Kong one after another.

The Chinese reporter of the securities firm learned from several banks that have already opened business that they have launched several demand savings deposit products with flexible interest rate pricing for the people of Hong Kong; at the same time, relying on the financial and technological advantages of Oriental, a number of banks have shown scientific and technological characteristics in the aspects of round-the-clock service, mobile payment and IT structure.

Hong Kong Ant Bank opens, focusing on 3-minute account opening and demand deposit management.

A Chinese reporter from the securities firm learned from Ant Group that Ant Bank (Hong Kong), a subsidiary of Ant Group, officially opened on September 28, providing round-the-clock electronic banking services to Hong Kong people.

According to reports, "from now on, Hong Kong users can download Ant Bank (Hong Kong) APP on their mobile phones. With their Hong Kong permanent identity cards, they do not need to apply at the counter like traditional banks. They can open accounts remotely as soon as 3 minutes on their mobile phones, using local money transfer services and demand savings deposits with an annual interest rate of up to 2.5%. "

In addition, Ant Bank will also cooperate with AlipayHK, the next step is expected to achieve direct from the AlipayHK e-wallet Mini Program to complete the remote bank account opening, "at that time, more than 2 million AlipayHK users online more than 50,000 Hong Kong merchants consumption can directly from the bank's' deposit treasure 'within the transfer payment, to further broaden the application scenarios of virtual banking in Hong Kong. "

It is reported that there is no precedent for other virtual banks to connect with digital wallet accounts in Hong Kong.

In addition to storage services for ordinary users and merchants, Ant Bank (Hong Kong) is also studying plans to support small and medium-sized enterprises. Wang Lan, CEO of Ant Bank (Hong Kong), told reporters that in the next stage, he hopes to use e-commerce in BABA's economy as its SME business service pilot, and actively develop small and micro financial services, including digital trade financing; when the service is mature, hope to further expand the scope to cover more small and medium-sized enterprises in Hong Kong.

According to the definition of the HKMA, a virtual bank is a bank that provides services through the Internet or other forms of electronic transmission channels. It does not have physical outlets to reduce operating costs and can provide 7 × 24-hour service. It mainly targets individuals and small and medium-sized enterprises, providing retail businesses such as deposits and withdrawals, loans, settlement, exchange, investment and financial management.

Since March 2019, the HKMA has issued eight virtual banking licences, including:

• The virtual banking license was issued for the first time on March 27th, 2019. The three approved companies are Livi VB Limited (joint venture between BOC Hong Kong (Holdings) Limited and JD.com), SC Digital Solutions Limited and Zhongan Virtual Finance Co., Ltd. (Zhongan Bank).

• On April 10, 2019, Welab Digital Limited, a financial technology company, was granted the fourth virtual banking license.

• On May 9, 2019, Ant Merchant Services (Hong Kong) Limited, Yifeng Limited, Insight Financial Technology Limited and Ping an Yi Yi Tong Co., Ltd. granted banking licences to operate virtual banks with effect from that day.

Since the first trial operation of Hong Kong Zhongan Bank in late March this year, brokerage Chinese reporters have not fully counted that five virtual banks, namely, Hong Kong Star Bank (major shareholder is XIAOMI), Ping an Yitong Bank, LiviVB, and Ant Bank (Hong Kong), have been opened in Hong Kong one after another.

The main promotion of high interest demand deposit financial management business, financial technology is the feature

Focusing on serving local SMEs and individual customers in Hong Kong and promoting inclusive finance is an important starting point for virtual banks.

The Chinese reporter of the securities firm learned from several virtual banks that have opened at present that for the people of Hong Kong, the banks have all launched several demand savings deposit products with flexible interest rate pricing; at the same time, relying on the financial and technological advantages of Oriental, a number of banks have demonstrated scientific and technological characteristics in the aspects of round-the-clock service, mobile payment, and IT architecture.

Star Bank, which opened on June 11 this year, is 90% owned by XIAOMI Financial and is the second Hong Kong virtual bank to officially open. Similar to the first Zhongan Bank, it launched flexible deposit products with preferential interest on its first day of business. In addition, from the perspective of public experience, the important business features of the first virtual banks are a sense of science and technology, convenience and convenience.

For example, Star Bank launched two deposit products. Among them, Hong Kong dollar demand deposits will be priced at a tiered interest rate, and customers with deposits of between HK $500000 and HK $1 million will enjoy an annual interest rate of up to 1 per cent. Time deposit customers can flexibly set their own deposit maturity dates, such as August, 19th, 27th, etc., customers can settle the time deposit in advance at any time without charging any fee.

On June 24 this year, Ping an Yi Zhang Tong Bank (Hong Kong) Co., Ltd. announced that it will launch a trial operation under sandboxie, the financial technology supervision of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, and will devote itself to creating a virtual banking ecosystem to reduce operating costs through technology. Expand personal banking business and SME banking business.

Ping an Yi Zhang Tong Bank, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ping an Yi Tong, will invite about 200 selected small and medium-sized trading customers and 2000 individual customers in Hong Kong to participate during the trial period. A Chinese reporter from the brokerage firm learned from relevant sources of OneConnect Financial Technology that after its opening, it launched a "preferential reward" scheme for individual customers. Customers with deposits of HK $1m can earn 1 per cent basic deposit rate per annum. You can also earn additional "easy reward" interest during the concessionary period (June 24-September 9). Some users enjoy an annual deposit interest rate of up to 8.8 per cent during the discount period, with deposits capped at HK $88000.

It is worth mentioning that another important business feature of the first virtual banks is the sense of science and technology. For example, after the official opening of Ant Bank in Hong Kong, it said that the next step would be to jointly expand the use of virtual banking technology in Hong Kong by AlipayHK.

In mid-August this year, the Hong Kong virtual bank livi bank (referred to as livi), a joint venture between JD.com Digital and BOC Hong Kong (Holdings) Limited and Jardine Group, officially faced the Hong Kong market. During the opening period, its products mainly included electronic payment functions, and customers could use UnionPay QR codes to shop at tens of thousands of retailers in Hong Kong. The Chinese reporter of the securities firm learned from JD.com 's mathematical sources that JD.com set up the bank's IT structure for livi, which supports livi accounts and transactions. In addition, JD.com also supported intermediate software platforms and tool systems, anti-fraud systems, intelligent online customer service, and the overall design of APP.

Dai Zhifeng, director of Zhongtai Securities Research Institute, pointed out that for mainland Internet giants, obtaining a virtual banking license in Hong Kong plays a very positive role and is an important springboard for overseas business expansion. There are three main reasons: "first, Hong Kong is an international free trade port, which is conducive to the development of cross-border financial business; second, there is a broad market for financial technology based on Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area; and third, there are many financial institutions in Hong Kong. Mainland Internet giants can replicate the successful business model of Internet banking to Hong Kong and other overseas regions. "

Many people in the industry believe that at present, banking services in Hong Kong, China can not fully meet the loan needs of small and medium-sized enterprises, and it is necessary to avoid competing for market share by launching a price war at the expense of earnings. "compared with retail customers, the greatest market potential of virtual banks lies in loans for small and medium-sized enterprises. Guo Xiaobei, senior economist at China Minsheng Banking Corp Research Institute, believes that virtual banks can use some big data for credit risk assessment to solve the financing difficulties of small and medium-sized enterprises and effectively fill the gap in the market.