Hong Kong virtual bank among Standard Chartered’s digital bets as bank aims to improve returns
- The lender hopes to receive one of the city’s first virtual banking licences, says CEO Bill Winters
Standard Chartered hopes to make its proposed virtual bank in Hong Kong a key pillar of its digital strategy as the lender looks to streamline and grow its retail business in parts of Asia and Africa, Bill Winters, the bank’s chief executive, said on Tuesday.
The lender, which is based in London but generates much of its revenue in Asia, is waiting to hear whether it will receive one of the first virtual bank licences that the Hong Kong Monetary Authority plans to issue this year.
Speaking at the Credit Suisse Asian Investment Conference in Hong Kong, Winters said the bank plans to use its virtual offering to target mass market customers and millennials, a sector where it has a “relatively small” market share in Hong Kong.
“[The] virtual bank we’re building, it will be a full-service bank. It will be a stand-alone bank. It will have partners. We intend to be able to cover the whole population of Hong Kong,” he said.
The bank introduced a digital-only bank last year in Côte d’Ivoire, where it has no physical presence, and has now rolled it out to four other African countries where it has a retail presence, including Ghana and Kenya.
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Standard Chartered plans to expand its digital-only bank to another five markets in Africa this year. And this model can also potentially be used in markets in the Middle East and South Asia, said Winters.
