BEIJING, Sept.5 (Xinhua) --- By 5pm on Aug.31, The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has received applications for virtual banking licenses from 29 technology and finance giants.
Those industrial giants such as Tencent, Ant Financial Services Group, JD Finance and HSBC Hong Kong applied as sole proprietorship or joint venture.
On May 30, 2018, HKMA issued a revised guideline on “Accreditation of Virtual Banks”, specifically stating that “bank, financial institutions and technology companies may apply to operate virtual banks in Hong Kong”.
According to HKMA, the first batch of 8-10 virtual banking licenses will be issued in the end of 2018. (Edited by Jiang Feifan,Niu Huizhe)