ReleaseWire Connect

New research has identified that vacancies for fintech talent are on the rise since the pandemic began to wind down, with a wealth of opportunities for those in fintech jobs. In fact, there has been a spike in vacancies of 182%, which means that the fintech talent market is outperforming the broader market by three times. One of the key challenges for many organisations is going to be finding the right talent to fill these positions, as there are major shortages across the tech sector today. Experts predict that the rate of expansion of the fintech market going forward will depend, to a certain extent, on how able enterprises are to find the right people to help their organisation to grow. Adoption of fintech products continues to expand exponentially, while the tech labor market remains tight, so there are major challenges ahead for the firms that are involved in this market.

A new partnership has been announced between Hong Kong's ARTA TechFin and China's Digital Technology of Insurance, focused on creating a key new wealth resource for the Greater Bay Area. Together, these two partners will deliver a technology-driven insurance and wealth management resource, with the first deadline by Q3 of this year. The partnership's initial focus will be on the Greater Bay Area insurance industry and will be designed to improve the digital resources available to traditional insurance brokers, providing many more options when it comes to servicing high net worth clients. This will include tech-driven sales support and training, a proprietary sales-focused SaaS system and access to an insurtech innovation centre in the region. Being able to modularise insurance policy data and integrate more sophisticated actuarial modelling and data analytical capabilities will be a big advantage for brokers and agents in the region. It will enable them to streamline the way they operate and save time on transaction processing.

Increasing compliance concerns have been a key theme across the banking and financial services sector in recent years. As pressure grows on enterprises to be more responsive, the market for global banking risk management is set to boom. Many banks have not been able to develop the internal competencies necessary to deal with the increasingly heavy burden of compliance. That's especially so given that compliance has expanded significantly in recent times to include additional risk sources, from channel and product to customer and operations. One of the biggest challenges that many organisations face is the way that risk management and compliance have become entangled with many other areas of operations and yet existing processes don't take this into account. For example, many banks have separated out risk management from customer experience programs even though the two are clearly interlinked. As a result of all these factors, there is going to be an increasing need for talent in global banking risk management and the market is set to boom.

It has been announced that Rede Partners has opened a new office in Hong Kong, appointing Charles Wan as the regional head for the business. The move signals a clear focus on the Asia Pacific region and the importance of Hong Kong as a gateway to this part of the world. Having a physical presence in Hong Kong will provide Rede with the opportunity to expand throughout the Asia Pacific region. Rede has established itself in a prominent position as a market-leading private markets advisory firm and the team has supported some of the industry's most dynamic GPs and LPs. This comes on the back of the firm celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2021 and seeing major growth, including appointing three new partners. Rede has also enjoyed considerable financial success, raising more than €20 billion of commitments for its primary fundraising clients across 13 funds holding final closes. The Hong Kong office looks like the start of an exciting new chapter for the firm.

Captive insurance has been a key theme over the past year, as policy initiatives have emerged aimed at securing Hong Kong's place as a key hub for global trade. As identified in the Insurance Authority's annual report, these initiatives have focused on four areas of captive insurance: insurance-linked securities (ILS), marine and specialty risk insurance, and reinsurance. The report highlights how legislative amendments have worked to make Hong Kong an ideal captive domicile for risk management insurers. The report focuses on Hong Kong's position close to Mainland China, as well as the fact that it is already renowned as a global financial centre. This combination, it says, "make it an ideal captive domicile for Mainland Chinese enterprises with overseas projects." The report also highlights how the Hong Kong Specialty Risks Consortium has been established to help connect supply and demand in the specialty risks area, further reinforcing Hong Kong's prime position.

The Hong Kong FinTech Buzz Index (FBI) is a quarterly index that represents a quantified sentiment of the local FinTech-related news articles in local Chinese news media. It is often used as a way to judge the outlook for fintech companies in the region and also where general sentiment sits in terms of the sector on a local level. After a previous decline in the Q4 2021 numbers, the most recent figures show that the Index is rebounding. All six of the indices used in the FBI have shown recent improvement and in particular, for Blockchain & Cryptocurrency, which experienced the largest rise. Insurtech and Payment & Digital Banking also saw notable upward shifts. The Index is the first resource of its kind in the region to provide timely information that allows tracking of the way that the financial technology sector is growing. It is proving to be an essential yardstick for following the progress of this key Hong Kong financial industry.

Cross-boundary fintech initiatives are being prioritised in Hong Kong thanks to the arrival of the Greater Bay Area Fintech Pilot Trial Facility. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority and the People's Bank of China have announced that financial institutions can now submit applications with respect to pilot trials for cross-boundary fintech initiatives in the Greater Bay Area (GBA).

When it comes to becoming the dominant pool of liquidity for China stock futures, the Hong Kong stock exchange has made a major move to seize market share from rival Singapore, breaking the city state's grip. This has resulted in an international-level battle in terms of how investors all over the world hedge Chinese equities. Singapore is still the biggest centre in the world for so-called A share futures and will remain so despite the inroads that Hong Kong is making. However, there is no doubt that the balance is changing.

The growing Greater Bay Area (GBA) represents a huge opportunity for those in risk management jobs, as well as many other fields in banking and financial services today. Recent comments from Carrie Lam, Hong Kong's Chief Executive, indicate that the 14th Five-Year plan puts Hong Kong firmly in a very visible position as a global centre for risk management. In fact, Lam made it clear that the industry has a vital role to play in helping to ensure that the GBA is able to realise its full potential in the coming years.

Hong Kong is the ideal environment when it comes to fintech innovation thanks to a number of key factors. For example, in 2020 the financial services sector made up 21% of Hong Kong's GDP. Not only that but 78 of the 100 most significant banks in the world have a presence in Hong Kong, as well as a myriad of other financial services players, such as asset managers and brokers.