The joint venture cooperatively initiated and established by AMTD and Xiaomi obtained a virtual banking license

May 9, 2019, Hong Kong –  AMTD Group (“AMTD”) and Xiaomi Corporation (“Xiaomi”) announced their jointly established entity, Insight Fintech, successfully secured a virtual banking license granted by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (the “HKMA”).

Front row from left: Vincent Cheng, Independent Director of Insight Virtual Bank; Annie Wu, Chairlady of the Advisory Committee
Back row from left: Shea Chen, Chief Executive of Insight Virtual Bank; Wei Liu, Head of Xiaomi Financial Office, Xiaomi Corporation; Feng Hong, Co-founder and Senior Vice President of Xiaomi Corporation, Chairman of Xiaomi Finance; Calvin Choi, Chairman of the Board and CEO of AMTD Group; Frederic Lau, Executive Director and Alternate Chief Executive of Insight Virtual Bank, Vice Chairman of the Board of AMTD Group

Virtual banking services to be launched in around 6 months’ time, focusing on financial inclusion and innovation

Our mission is to render innovative, financial inclusion and green finance, and to promote Hong Kong as a smart city through delivering fintech to the general public. We aim to create a user friendly bank where banking is a joyful matter for our customers, and ultimately become the ‘coolest bank’ in their hearts. We will inject fintech innovations into traditional banking services, and will provide Hong Kong individual and corporate SME customers with personalised and efficient digital banking services to be delivered through state of the art platform and applications offering supreme customer experience in fintech. We are targeting to launch our services in around 6 months.

During the initial phase of our operations, our Virtual Bank will focus on the integration of fintech into traditional banking services, leveraging cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence (“AI”), big data, cloud computing and blockchain to enhance our customers’ experience. Combining the strengths of our two shareholders, Insight Virtual Bank will deliver seamless financing services for the entire supply chain, including upstream and downstream suppliers and customers of the Xiaomi Group. On the other hand, AMTD will share its in-depth knowledge in serving the Hong Kong financial services sector, especially in terms of localized customer needs, and add value to this state of the art platform with its local expertise.

A distinctive virtual bank benefiting from strong shareholders’ support

Xiaomi and AMTD will contribute their resources and experiences to create a unique virtual banking business. As a distinct "Internet +" innovative enterprises in China, Xiaomi has already achieved a good degree of globalisation. In 2018, Xiaomi’s international revenue accounted for 40% of the its total revenue. In addition, Xiaomi has a leading position in the IoT field and is currently the world's largest IoT platform with approximately 151 million IoT devices. In Hong Kong, Xiaomi has a large Hong Kong customer base with approximately 1.6 million active mobile devices.

Xiaomi has also gained good momentum in the field of fintech. Through deploying cloud services, Xiaomi has successfully developed proprietary application platforms including credit core and supply chain management systems employing big data, machine learning and IoT technologies. Being the shareholder of Xinwang Bank, one of the three pure internet banks operating in mainland China, Xiaomi has accumulated abundant practical experiences in launching applications in the internet banking industry. Xiaomi's leading technological knowhow in the mobile Internet and fintech capabilities will enable our Virtual Bank to deliver intelligent and supreme customers’ experience to our Hong Kong users.    

The Virtual Bank’s other shareholder, AMTD, is a leading Hong Kong headquartered comprehensive financial institution in Asia, currently the largest independent investment bank and one of the largest non-bank asset managers in Asia. AMTD is also a leading force in the fintech industry. Being an active investment bank in the international capital markets, AMTD has successfully assisted many Chinese leading technology companies and financial institutions to land on Hong Kong and US capital markets, ranking amongst the top players in the global equity and debt offerings league tables.

AMTD has established a unique "AMTD SpiderNet (AMTD eco-system)" , and founded the Regional Banks+ Cooperation Alliance, partnering with leading PRC regional banks including Guangzhou Rural Commercial Bank, Jiangxi Bank, Bank of Qingdao and Zhongyuan Bank. AMTD has in-depth understanding of the features and limitations of traditional bank operating model, and is dedicated to transforming the servicing and the delivery model as well as customer experience by introducing innovative technologies.

Insight Virtual Bank Core Preparatory Team Photo

Enabling every user to enjoy the pleasure of using fintech

Elaborating on his mission of establishing a virtual bank in Hong Kong, Mr Hong Feng, Co-founder and Senior Vice President of Xiaomi Corporation, Chairman and CEO of Xiaomi Finance, said that Xiaomi is very pleased to co-establish a virtual bank to support Hong Kong’s “new era of smart banking”. The new Virtual Bank will introduce more user-friendly and competitive products to reach more clients in different sectors of our society, and continuously enhance our user experience. “Our Virtual Bank will enable  every user to enjoy the pleasure of using fintech”. Mr Hong is fully aware of the challenges facing traditional banks in achieving financial inclusion, particularly customers residing in remote areas. He is confident that the new Virtual Bank will deliver services to retail clients currently not being served by traditional banks in Hong Kong. Both shareholders of the Virtual Bank will ensure high-quality user experience through innovation, more importantly, our Virtual Bank is committed to solving the SMEs’ pain points in securing reasonable cost financing, and supporting them to grow and develop.

According to Mr. Calvin Choi, Chairman of the Board and CEO of AMTD, “as a comprehensive and diversified financial institution rooted in Hong Kong, AMTD will deepen our collaboration with Xiaomi across all spectrums,  and fully integrate with the competitive advantages and resources of Xiaomi’s leading IoT platform. Equipped with abundant knowledge and experiences in the local ecological culture and international capital markets, AMTD is pleased to join force with Xiaomi to create the most distinctive and innovative bank in Hong Kong, and we are very keen to continuously promote the Fintech developments of Hong Kong as a smart city.”

About our Shareholders

July 9, 2018, Xiaomi Corp completed its IPO at Hong Kong Stock Exchange, which was one of the top three largest global tech IPO as well as the first to file for a Hong Kong IPO with a weighted-voting rights structure. AMTD, the Joint Bookrunner and Joint Lead Manager for the transaction, was the only Hong Kong-headquartered investment bank in the syndicates together with all international bulge brackets and China SOE-backed securities firms.

About AMTD Group

Being rooted in Hong Kong, based in the Greater Bay Area with global perspectives, AMTD Group is the largest independent investment bank in Asia, a leading comprehensive financial institution in Hong Kong, and one of the largest independent non-bank asset management platforms and insurance brokerage companies in Asia. AMTD is one of the few Hong Kong investment banks that are active in the international capital markets, ranked amongst the top players in the international markets in terms of equity and debt offerings, and assisted various Chinese leading technology companies and financial institutions to land on Hong Kong and US capital markets. AMTD Group is the only global strategic partner of the World Economic Forum among Hong Kong-headquartered financial institutions.

About Xiaomi Corporation

Founded in Apr 2010, Xiaomi Corporation is an internet company with smartphones and smart hardware connected by an IoT platform at its core, and the world's top five smartphone company and the world's largest IoT platform. Built on its foundation of innovation and efficiency, Xiami’s mission is “to be friends with our users and become the ‘coolest company’ in their hearts”. Xiaomi Corporation relentlessly delivers amazing products with honest prices, allowing everyone in the world enjoy a better life through innovative technology. Since inception, Xiaomi Corporation has strategically positioned in AI, IoT, new retail, and fintech, among other areas. In 2019, Xiaomi Corporation officially launched the “smartphones +AIoT” dual-prone strategy as its core strategy in the next five years.