Hong Kong's FinTech Growth Index for 2019-20 grew by 52.9% compared with its base period from April 1, 2018 to March 31, 2019, which represents an optimistic outlook by partnered companies. It can be attributed to policies and measures which act as accelerators to foster a positive impact on the industry's development.
The anticipated growth of business performance, indicated by FinTech customer adoption rate grew by 113% as compared with the 2018-19 financial year, representing an optimistic outlook of the business development by the companies.
The business environment, measured by both internal and external factors on FinTech business operations and development, grew by a modest 5% in the same period. Although there is a positive effect of the internal factors by the companies in terms of funding and other capital allocations, it has been cancelled off by the relatively lower average rating on external factors such as investment environment, government policy and regulations.
Investment on R&D or product development, measured by the anticipated percentage change between 2019-20 financial year and the base period, grew moderately by 48.4%, mainly on areas including AI, big data and machines/deep learning (55.3%), followed by Blockchain (42.3%) and Customer experience (39.5%).
Demand on Talents, measured by the anticipated percentage change between 2019-20 financial year and the base period, grew moderately by 45.3%. On the required skills for new employees, Programming skills (68.4%) are the most preferable skills for new hires, followed by Marketing expertise (47.4%) and Knowledge of machine/deep learning and AI (42.1%)
About the Project
HKU FinTech Index Series
The project is funded by HKU-SCF FinTech Academy and led by Prof. SM Yiu (Professor and Associate Head (Development) of the Department of Computer Science at HKU) and Prof. Philip Yu (Honorary Professor of the Department of Computer Science at HKU, and Professor of the Department of Mathematics and Information Technology at EdUHK).
Hong Kong is a global financial centre, the HKU FinTech Index Series is the first in the region to provide index indicators on the development of the sector, with an aim to provide information in a timely manner to track the growth and development of the financial technology industry in Hong Kong.
The long-term goal of the HKU FinTech Index Series is to establish a framework to be extended to the Greater Bay Area including Shenzhen and neighboring cities.
FinTech Growth Index (FGI)
Hong Kong's FinTech Growth Index is a yearly index with four sub-indices on Business Environment, Business Performance, Investment on R&D and Demand on Talent. It reflects Hong Kong FinTech sector's forecast of the market situation in the coming uear and an assessment of the situation in the current year.
FGI for the financial year 2020-21 represents responses to an annual survey by 45 companies (89% are Start-ups and 7% are Unicorns) nominated by an Advisory Board which comprises professionals from the local FinTech industry, including representatives from FinTech Association of Hong Kong, InvestHK, Cyberport, Science Park, The Bank of East Asia, Limited, and Suoxinda Data Technology Co. Ltd.
This index is compared to the companies' responses in the base period of 2018-2019 set as 100 points.
FinTech Buzz Index (FBI)
Hong Kong's FinTech Buzz Index is a quarterly index representing a quantified sentiment of the local FinTech-related news articles in Chinese in the past three months. FBI has a base value of 100 points which represents the sentiment of nearly 10K FinTech related news articles in major local news media outlets in 2016 and 2017.
FBI is further broken down into six sectors: Insurance Technology(InsurTech), Wealth Management & Credit Technology (WealthTech & CreditTech), Blockchain & Cryptocurrency, E-payment & Digital Banking, Regulatory Technology (RegTech) & Cybersecurity, and Other related business.
About the project sponsor:
HKU-SCF FinTech Academy
The University of Hong Kong – Standard Chartered Hong Kong 150th Anniversary Community Foundation FinTech Academy (“the HKU-SCF FinTech Academy”) was established in April 2020 with a mission to make a sustainable impact in FinTech by grooming world-class talents and leading innovative research to further strengthen Hong Kong’s position as an international financial centre.
Through a commitment of HK$60 million from the Standard Chartered Hong Kong 150th Anniversary Community Foundation, the HKU-SCF FinTech Academy is steered by Faculty of Engineering, with support from Faculty of Law as well as Faculty of Business & Economics of The University of Hong Kong.