Fintech Insider Podcast by 11:FS
00:12:13 · Ross Gallagher, Sarah Kocianski, Valentina Kristensen
[00:12:13] S0: It's it's one of the three, right? [00:12:14] S1: It's one of the three. So I I I like that process as well. I think, you know, HKMA is... Has learned from from other markets. Its use of Sandbox has worked elsewhere. Brilliant. Interesting point about whatever that bank is, day bank, and they had 2,000 people express interest before it even went into the Sandbox. So I think these banks are are are gonna do well in that market. [00:12:32] S3: Well, also what's interesting is seven of the eight pending licenses that you mentioned are backed by Alibaba, Tencent, Xiaomi, and Bank of China. So, you know, again, really, really interesting. It just shows you... I mean, there's Alibaba's kind of been in in... And Tencent as well have been in fintech for for a while, whether it's through, you know, Alipay, WeChat, etcetera. So I mean, it's, it's great to see that that, you know, they're obviously using their their their scale to now try and take advantage of this of this change with the with the new digital banking licenses. Obviously, you've had a couple of players like Revolut and Tandem express interest in going to Hong Kong. I mean, Tandem said in November last year that it would roll out an early adopter program before the end of last year. I don't know if that happened.
00:13:17 · Sarah Kocianski
[00:13:17] S1: I don't believe so because I think Tandem has other things going on at the moment if you look at its recent fundraising round and its purchase of a lender. But just to your point there, Val, I completely agree. One of the really interesting things about Hong Kong and the Hong Kong virtual bank market as well is exactly as you say, how many of them are JVs. So that's not something we've already seen somewhere else. And that says two things to me. One, that the incumbents are aware and then need to, you know, up their game. They're not just gonna let these new guys come in and and and take it away from them. And two, that that this kind of like ecosystem is becoming bigger and bigger and more and more sprawling and more and more players are getting involved. You know, why wouldn't telcos be involved in neobanks? It does kind of make sense when you look at some of the technologies involved. So I think that's kind of almost the unique thing about Hong Kong. I'm really intrigued to see how it plays out.
00:14:01 · Ross Gallagher, Valentina Kristensen, Sarah Kocianski
[00:14:01] S0: I think your point that I really wanted to pick up on was around this with that cultural alignment between particularly The UK and Hong Kong and how that's played out I think in a regulatory sense. We know that the HKMA, we've spoken to them, we've got a good relationship with guys there, that they've had our eyes on particularly the FCA and sort of see them as the gold standard. What I think is also interesting is value mentioned like Revolut. This idea of startups from The UK in particular being able to go into HKMA into Hong Kong, test the market with a view to then sort of maybe moving into like Mainland China and actually sort of potentially acquiring a much larger customer base. [00:14:44] S3: Well, it's one of the fintech bridges with Hong Kong? [00:14:46] S1: It is. Yeah. So I don't know all of them off top my head, but Hong Kong, Australia is definitely another Singapore. South Korea, [00:14:52] S3: I think. [00:14:53] S1: South Korea, that's an interesting one. And there is one with... I... It's not Canada. I think it's Ontario. It's like one of the Canadian districts. But, again, that speaks to your point about kind of the the old relationships or old alliances, if you like.
00:14:53 · Sarah Kocianski, Valentina Kristensen, Ross Gallagher
[00:14:53] S1: South Korea, that's an interesting one. And there is one with... I... It's not Canada. I think it's Ontario. It's like one of the Canadian districts. But, again, that speaks to your point about kind of the the old relationships or old alliances, if you like. [00:15:05] S3: The thing with Revolut, so I looked because I was... I... You know, when when we were sort of reading about this story, obviously, one of their big backers is DST Global who are based in Hong Kong. On the website, it says they're recruiting for over 420 positions at the moment, but none are in Hong Kong. So I don't know if that's... They haven't, you know, then maybe they're sort of deciding what kind of people they want to hire there. Maybe they're waiting until, you know, they've kind of, I guess, got got a license or gotten more sort of, perhaps, partnered with someone who has a license. [00:15:33] S1: I mean, they are operating in Australia, Revolut. Mhmm. So... And not part of, you know, the latest money they've raised is to go towards that. So I wonder if they've actually looked at it and thought that they... Why have a base in both Hong Kong and Australia? Because from Australia, maybe you can do work across Asia as well. I don't know that, but but I just think that might be another option for their strategy. [00:15:52] S0: Alright. Well, for more on this, we turn to Mox CEO, Denise Goven, who had this to say.
00:15:57 · Deniz Guven
[00:15:57] S4: Hi, FinTech Insider. Hi, everyone. I'm very excited to share that we have just unveiled our brand MOX. Early days, but I can tell you that there's a big excitement already. And mox.com visited more than 100,000 times without any paid media. And LinkedIn followers are going up very quickly. MOX is a virtual challenger bank in Hong Kong, powered by Standard Chartered in partnership with PCCW, Hong Kong Telecom and trip.com. We are the combined power of a leading international bank, the city's telecom, and Asia's largest online travel agency. We will also redefine the digital banking experience in Hong Kong by providing a suite of financial and lifestyle services instead of traditional products to unlock more possibilities for our customers. Our name MOX reflects endless opportunities we can create. Mobile experience, money experience, exponential growth, exploration. We call ourselves and our customers generation MOX. Jam MOCs is not about age or digital savviness. It's a mindset. It's an attitude for more possibilities. We believe banking should be simple, intuitive and of course delightful to gain customers trust and win their hearts. We are also the first bank in Asia to launch all in one numberless bank card. It's a card carrying all functions of an ATM, debit, credit without any printed card numbers, expiry date or CVV. We launched this card because we know security and privacy is core to our customers and I believe everyone will like our card design. MoxApp will be the remote controller of your card and will be a great convergence between a physical product and digital service. To be a successful virtual bank, I truly believe one of the most important elements is to gain heart share in Hong Kong instead of market share. We will launch the bank in upcoming months. Stay tuned. Take care.
00:17:56 · Ross Gallagher
[00:17:56] S0: Okay. I think we can all agree on I think Deniz's passion and enthusiasm there was really quite charming. Okay. I'm gonna move us on to our next story, which I I... I'm kinda loving right now, sat next to Valentina Christensen. The story itself comes from the Financial Times and concerns Oak North Bank reporting a spike in pretax profits. So the UK neobank made £65,900,000, a 95% increase from its 2018 totals. The bank, which specializes in lending to midsized businesses, reached 2,000,000,000 in loans this year, more than doubling its previous year's totals. It also raised revenues by 74% to £104,000,000 last year. And unlike many neo banks, Oak North has been consistently profitable even amid uncertainty in The UK market. So, Val, do you mind if I throw to you, Cara, to tell us a little bit about this story?