#HKFintech2019 Vol.4 | Calvin Choi, Conlin Pou, Mary Huen, Angel Ng and Sebastian Paredes jointly explore innovation, transformation and upgrading of financial institutions

Hong Kong Fintech Week

Organized by InvestHK, a HKSAR government department, supported by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC), the Insurance Authority (IA) and the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEX), and with AMTD Group as the sole strategic partner, Hong Kong Fintech Week 2019 took place from November 4th to 8th in Hong Kong and Shenzhen. This is the second year in a row that AMTD Group serves as a sole strategic partner for Hong Kong Fintech Week.

As the opening panel of 「2019 Hong Kong FinTech Week」, under the moderation of Conlin Pou, Executive Director of Financial Infrastructure, Hong Kong Monetary Authority, Calvin Choi, Chairman & CEO of AMTD Group, Mary Huen, Chief Executive Officer of Standard Chartered Hong Kong, Angel Ng, Chief Executive Officer of Citi Hong Kong and Macau, and Sebastian Paredes, Chief Executive Officer of DBS Bank (Hong Kong) Limited shared opinions on the topic “Where Will You Stand Amid the Paradigm Shift?”

In May 2019, Airstar Bank, jointly established by AMTD Group and Xiaomi Corporation, was granted the Virtual Banking license issued by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, becoming one of the only eight virtual banking license holders. In addition, AMTD built up a unique, extensive and diversified ecosystem network AMTD - SpiderNet comprising various reputable business partners through long-term and in-depth cooperation and resources sharing. As to how AMTD, as an innovative financial institution stands out in the highly competitive financial industry, Calvin Choi says.

Building an innovative financial institution, especially in a digital world is more about transition of approach and building an ecosystem of your own which will allow more cost-productive operation, more partnership of various dimensions and more value creation.

This is the same approach that I have taken to build AMTD a few years ago when I took up the leadership. As a leading financial institution in Asia, AMTD Group comprises of four main business line: Investment Banking, Asset Management, Insurance Brokerage, and Strategic Investment. In August 2019, AMTD International, our investment banking and asset management arms, were successfully listed in New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: HKIB), becoming Asia’s largest independent investment bank. AMTD is also Hong Kong’s largest corporate insurance brokerage and risk solutions company. However, we are not just a financial institution. Leveraging our solid foundation in Asia, we have built an ecosystem, ‘AMTD SpiderNet’ to offer super connectivity for all types of clients, strategic partners, portfolio companies and investors.

In our ecosystem, we connect lots of regional banks from mainland China, many of which are listed in Hong Kong such as Bank of Qingdao, Guangzhou Rural Commercial Bank, Jiangxi Bank and Zhongyuan Bank. Hong Kong, as an international financial center, attracts these regional banks to raise fund through equity, fixed income and preferred shares offering as well as to manage their assets, and AMTD is committed to providing these partners with comprehensive international capital market services. In 2018 Hong Kong Fintech Week, AMTD initiated “The Regional Banks + Strategic Cooperation Alliance” which is a financial cooperation and communication platform connecting regional banks with the purpose of “Mutual Cooperation, Synergic Team-up, Innovated Developments”. The Alliance is committed to empowering the traditional financial business with fintech and developing the new model of technology finance, smart finance, inclusive finance and green finance.

When talking about virtual banking ecosystem, it’s not just about AMTD ecosystem alone but also collaboration with our partner Xiaomi’s ecosystem. Xiaomi, as the largest IoT consumer platform globally, has lots of terminal data which can be applied in financial industry. Combining these data with our banking data can generate enormous value.

As to how to keep innovating in a world with rapid development and changes of science and technology, Calvin Choi emphasized staying hungry and being curious is the spirit embedded in the DNA of AMTD. As the only strategic partner of "2019 Hong Kong Fintech Week", AMTD brought together talents from all over the world to exchange ideas and promote the development of fintech industry.