Standard Chartered has announced it will join the virtual banking race in Hong Kong with offers and services to attract tech-savvy younger population.
According to TechinAsia, Standard Chartered is based in London but generates much of its revenue in Asia, as one of eight firms that won virtual bank licenses from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) in 2019 and is expected to launch new services in 2020. It has introduced online-only banking services in eight African countries over the last 18 months, and has enhanced its digital banking services in Singapore and India.
Standard Chartered spent USD 1.7 billion globally on its digitization and IT costs in 2019, almost three times what it spent in 2015 when Winters first joined. Hong Kong’s first virtual lender, ZA Bank, which started operations in December 2019, kicked off a price war last week by offering a 6.8% interest rate on three-month time deposits for up to 2,000 customers, much higher than traditional lenders’ 2% to 3% for large deposits.
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