Hong Kong’s banking sector enters new era as ZA Bank becomes the city’s first virtual lender to launch services
- ZA Bank, which has selected 2,000 users to test its services, to initially offer multicurrency savings account, time deposits and local transfers from today
- Launch of virtual banks is major milestone in the development of Hong Kong’s banking industry, says Arthur Yuen, deputy chief executive of HKMA
ZA Bank, co-owned by mainland online insurer ZhongAn Online P&C Insurance and Sinolink Group, on Wednesday became the first virtual bank to start services in Hong Kong after gaining regulatory approval from Hong Kong Monetary Authority.
ZA Bank will allow its 2,000 selected users, which includes friends and relatives of its staff, to try its services, such as remote account opening, multicurrency savings account, time deposits, local transfers and e-statements, according to a statement from the bank.
The bank said that customers can open an account in five minutes using only a Hong Kong identity card.
“‘ZA’ represents a reverse of the alphabetical order – going from Z to A – reminding us to always think out of the box and view things from a different perspective,” said Rockson Hsu, chief executive of ZA Bank.
“It’s good to be bold, contrarian and creative. ‘Z’ and ‘A’ also means ‘end-to-end’, it symbolises our mission to redefine customer journey through technology, from the front-end (mobile app/branch), mid-office (customer service/operation department) to back-end (operating system), from product development to service process.”