The first of Hong Kong’s online-only banks opened on Tuesday.
In Brief:
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ZA Bank is a unit of China’s ZhongAn Online P&C Insurance Co.
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ZA will offer a lending and deposit account with a relatively high annual interest rate.
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Hong Kong issued around eight digital banking licenses in 2019.
What does this mean?
Initially the licensed ‘virtual banks’, including the likes of Ant Financial and Standard Chartered, were set to go live by the end of 2019 but have been slower than expected. Hong Kong is pushing for online only banks to boost competition in the region and therefore improve banking services for customers.
