Tencent - itbusinessdirect

Tencent and Alibaba licenced to compete world’s biggest banks to offer Hong Kong banking

May 9, 2019 Editor

Tencent and Alibaba are set to compete with some of the world’s biggest banks including HSBC and Standard Chartered as Hong Kong opens up its market to online competitors. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority has issued virtual banking licences to China’s top technology groups, adding to the growing number of companies that have already been approved to provide digital services in the Asian financial hub. China’s Xiaomi, the world’s fourth largest smartphone maker, and PingAn, the world’s largest insurer, were also granted a licence on Thursday by the city’s banking…

China gets its first online private bank, courtesy of Tencent

January 6, 2015February 17, 2016

Chinese internet and social giant Tencent has launched the country’s first private online bank. The bank, which is called WeBank in a clear allusion to its massively popular instant messaging service WeChat, is also China’s first internet-based financial institution. The launch of WeBank sees Tencent steal a march on Alibaba and eight other private investors who were last year given permission to launch five private online banks. As Technode pointed out at the time, the pilot programme is designed to help make funding more accessible to startups and small businesses.…