Hong Kong Virtual Bank Reviews
An independent and in-depth VB and popular SVF ongoing review report is brewing.
After Hong Kong Monetary Authority issued licenses to eight virtual banks for more than a year, only 7 have launched their services to general public. On one hand, the pandemic as well as the social activities in 2019 bought in many negative impacts, but on the other hand, the new normal may be a good factor to boost Hong Kong’s banking services and thus, the weakening economy by urging the very traditional banking services to play more important roles on the new digital economy arena.
After tried all 7 out of 8 virtual bank’s services, I have to stress that only MOX gave me a hassle free experience all the way from from account opening, in and out-flow payments setup, to the value added service applications such as a full function debit card service.
For the other 6, I had to keep retrying for 2 to 5 times for the rest VB’s KYC processes while the systems were validating the images of ID card and my selfies. Moreover, I notice that Welab and PaoAn cannot open my account instantly. It may take up to 2 working days as indicated.
In a nutshell, MOX is taking the lead by far in many aspects. I am eager to see what Fusion bank which is backed by Tencent, ICBC and HK Exchange can offer when it is publicly launched. I am expecting Ant Bank and Livi to provide much wider range of services when Ant bank is closely linked with AlipayHK and Livi is collaborating tightly with its shareholders, JD and Jardines groups as planned. I am also looking forward to any disruptive and innovative services the other challenger banks can offer over the next 3 to 6 months.
In the following months, I shall review the local virtual banks from difference aspects such as UI/UX, features, innovations, service level and most importantly, to find out if they can really help Hong Kong to transform from a rather traditional financial center to a relatively digital one. Please do stay tuned.
