A new report from Deloitte has been dismissed by the Hong Kong government after it ranked the city fifth for FinTech and three spots behind Singapore.
In a report from the South China Morning Post, it’s claimed that the study didn’t compare financial technology development, but financial and business environments together.
According to Chan Ka-Keung, Secretary for Financial Services and the Treasury Profession, the report looked at three organizations which subsequently ‘ranked the competitiveness of financial centers, their innovation capacity and business environment.’
However, many questioned why Hong Kong had been placed behind its rival Singapore, which according to a Fintech Adoption Index compiled by Ernst & Young in 2015, found that Hong Kong’s FinTech use was twice that compared to Singapore’s. This despite the fact that last month it was reported that there was increased cooperation between the two countries to make way for partnerships.
FinTech in China
Investment in FinTech in the Chinese nation has been increasing steadily.
Earlier this month, it was reported that investment in the financial technology sector had risen in Chinain 2016 despite other countries experiencing a slowdown in the market.
According to a report from City Asia Pacific, in 2016 global FinTech investments amounted to US18 billion with China making up 50 percent of the 2016 total. Compared with the U.S. and Europe, funding had declined to 38 percent and 27 percent, respectively.
With its eye on the FinTech top spot, China is doing all it can to push itself ahead of its competitors within Asia and quite possibly the world.
So much so, that it was announced in January that a ten billion yuan, around $1.44 billion, fund was being launched in Beijing, China. It’s hoped that this will help to nurture enterprises and startups within the country.
Links to London’s FinTech
In what may be considered a significant move, the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) signed an agreement with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) for the two FinTech markets to work togetherat the end of last year.
It is hoped that the agreement will help the two countries to benefit from the transfer of ideas and innovation while reducing barriers to entry for companies in the U.K. and Hong Kong.
And yet, while China may have dismissed Deloitte’s recent report, the country is certainly ramping up its efforts to become number one. How long that will take remains to be seen, but considering its efforts to date, it doesn’t appear to be slowing down anytime soon.
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