HONG KONG, Jan. 20, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- On the morning of January 16, WeBank Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "WeBank Technology") held a plaque unveiling and cooperation signing ceremony in Hong Kong. Gu Min, Chairman of WeBank, and Li Nanqing, President of WeBank and Chairman of WeBank Technology, attended the event.
Cooperation signing ceremony of Weizhong Technology Co., Ltd.
At the event, WeBank signed agreements with five partners, including Indonesia's Mega Group, Thailand's SCBX, Malaysia's Hong Leong Bank, and Fusion Bank, to carry out in-depth cooperation in digital finance, digital infrastructure solutions, etc. This signing reflects the partners' recognition of WeBank's financial technology strength and innovation capabilities, and is an important milestone for all parties involved in the cooperation, opening a new chapter for promoting in-depth cooperation and working together.
WeBank Technology is a wholly-owned subsidiary of WeBank with a registered capital of US$150 million. WeBank Technology will actively respond to national strategic policies, seize global digital development opportunities, adhere to the original mission of "based in Hong Kong, committed to technology output, and providing digital finance and digital infrastructure solutions to global customers", participate in high-level competition in the international market with independent and controllable technology, and provide technology services for countries and regions that jointly build the "Belt and Road".
WeBank Technology settles in Hong Kong and establishes its international headquarters
In recent years, WeBank has performed outstandingly in the fields of financial technology and digital inclusive finance, and has achieved remarkable results, which has won the focus and high recognition at home and abroad. In order to actively respond to and help implement national strategies such as the "Belt and Road", "Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area", and "Financial Power", on June 21, 2024, WeBank was approved to establish a technology subsidiary in Hong Kong.
As an international financial center, Hong Kong has always attached great importance to the development of financial technology. In 2019, Invest Hong Kong and other institutions invited WeBank to set up a technology subsidiary and conduct business in Hong Kong to help Hong Kong build innovative infrastructure. In 2023, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government proposed to vigorously develop headquarters economy, help mainland enterprises "go global", and explore emerging markets in countries and regions along the "Belt and Road Initiative", which is even more inseparable from the service support of financial institutions. The State Financial Supervision and Administration Bureau also publicly stated that it would actively support the construction of Hong Kong's headquarters economy, encourage Chinese banks and insurance institutions to set up overseas regional headquarters in Hong Kong, support the two banks and insurance institutions to strengthen all-round cooperation, and provide one-stop financial services for Chinese enterprises to "go global".
In his speech, Li Nanqing said that WeBank Technology will rely on Hong Kong's vibrant business environment to build its Hong Kong headquarters into a sales center, delivery center and innovation center serving the world, actively participate in the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and help consolidate and enhance the economic integration and development of Shenzhen and Hong Kong and Hong Kong's international financial center. We will seize the historic opportunity of developing digital inclusive finance in countries along the "Belt and Road", share the successful experience of the Chinese market, promote the country's leading financial technology and digital technology, cooperate with overseas institutions, serve Chinese companies going overseas, and promote the vigorous development of inclusive finance.
Promote financial connectivity and help the integrated development of Shenzhen and Hong Kong economies
WeBank Technology's landing in Hong Kong is a reflection of the integrated development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and the interconnection of the financial sector in Shenzhen and Hong Kong. As a pioneer in the financial development of the Greater Bay Area, Shenzhen is geographically close to Hong Kong, and the financial markets of the two places are closely connected and interdependent. Hong Kong has a profound foundation in terms of legal environment, regulatory system, market system, and professional talents, while Shenzhen has gathered many leading financial companies and has an active innovation ecosystem. The financial institutions of the two places complement each other's strengths and achieve mutual benefit and win-win results.
After its establishment, WeBank Technology has actively assisted Hong Kong financial institutions in deeply applying cutting-edge financial technology capabilities and improving their digitalization level, promoted financial connectivity between Shenzhen and Hong Kong, helped Hong Kong consolidate and enhance its status as an international financial center, and built a vibrant financial technology ecosystem.
In September 2024, WeBank Technology joined the Hong Kong side of the Shenzhen-Hong Kong cross-border data verification platform, leveraging its technological advantages to help build the Shenzhen-Hong Kong cross-border digital infrastructure and promote data interconnection and interoperability in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. At present, the Shenzhen-Hong Kong cross-border data verification platform has cumulatively served 8 domestic and foreign partner institutions, and has launched multiple business scenarios including business owner credit information verification, enterprise credit information verification, enterprise KYC report verification, and university notification verification.
In October 2024, WeBank Technology joined the Ensemble Architecture Working Group, a wholesale central bank digital currency (wCBDC) project initiated by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, to help build the digital infrastructure of Hong Kong's financial market and support the digital transformation of Hong Kong's financial industry. Subsequently, WeBank Technology will provide support for the innovative development of Hong Kong's tokenization market based on its accumulation of blockchain technology and industrial application practices, and help Hong Kong build an innovative financial market infrastructure.
Focus on technology output and serve global corporate customers
As the first digital bank established in China and a global leader, WeBank has been unwaveringly pursuing the path of digital banking development with independent technological innovation over the past decade. By continuously increasing its investment in technological innovation, it has established a world-leading capability system that is highly recognized at home and abroad in cutting-edge technology fields such as artificial intelligence, blockchain, cloud computing, and big data. It has applied for more than 4,000 patents in total and has open-sourced more than 38 projects worldwide.
As a wholly-owned subsidiary of WeBank, WeBank Technology inherits WeBank's technological heritage and practical achievements. With the help of Hong Kong, a key "bridgehead", it actively promotes the implementation of domestic cutting-edge financial technology capabilities overseas in a way that is highly adaptable to the international market, rapidly enhances the financial digitalization capabilities of countries and regions along the Belt and Road Initiative, and supports the development of the local digital economy.
In the Hong Kong market, based on the independently developed, secure and controllable Openhive digital banking base technology system, WeBank helped Fusion Bank successfully integrate and transform more than 150 subsystems in five core banking business areas, including retail deposits, retail loans, corporate deposits, corporate loans and foreign exchange business, supporting Fusion Bank to solve problems such as its own information system's high dependence on overseas commercial technology products, high IT operating costs, and insufficient digital service capabilities.
In the Indonesian market, WeBank helped Allo Bank, an Indonesian digital bank, build a new generation of digital banking core system based on open architecture and high cost-effectiveness by providing technical support such as AI and big data, and provided it with comprehensive digital financial solutions, enabling the digital bank's inclusive financial business to grow by approximately 5 million users within a year.
At present, WeBank Technology has started cooperation negotiations with more than 20 institutions in Hong Kong, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and other countries, and reached cooperation intentions worth tens of millions of dollars, and its business has got off to a good start.
WeBank Technology will continue to promote China's advanced digital financial solutions in countries and regions participating in the joint construction of the "Belt and Road", quickly build a new generation of core banking systems and application modules adapted to the digital age for overseas financial institutions that hope to enhance their inclusive financial services capabilities, and export data platforms, big data model construction, digital operations and other solutions to help local digital inclusive finance development and contribute positively to the promotion of financial connectivity and economic prosperity in countries and regions participating in the joint construction of the "Belt and Road".
Helping enterprises to "go global" and solving the pain points of supply chain financial services
In recent years, driven by China's policy support and market demand, Chinese enterprises going overseas has become a major trend. From the perspective of the existing overseas banking and financial system, whether it is overseas banking institutions or overseas branches of Chinese banks, there is a lot of room for improvement in providing local financial services for Chinese enterprises going overseas, especially in serving the financial needs of small and medium-sized enterprises upstream and downstream of the overseas supply chain of overseas enterprises, which to some extent restricts the overseas business expansion of Chinese enterprises going overseas.
As a technology subsidiary of a digital bank, WeBank Technology is exploring ways to establish a network of in-depth cooperation with overseas financial institutions by exporting cutting-edge technological capabilities and innovative digital solutions, and to provide relevant overseas financial institutions with support in business negotiations, digital financial solutions, and other aspects for Chinese companies going overseas.
In the future, WeBank Technology is committed to becoming an overseas strategic partner for Chinese companies going global. Through cooperation with overseas financial institutions, it will solve the pain points of local supply chain financial services for small and medium-sized enterprises and end customers upstream and downstream of the companies' overseas supply chains, and promote the upgrading of related services and the renewal of industrial capabilities.
