Tag: WeBank

Hong Kong – Shenzhen-based digital banking leader WeBank has unveiled plans to establish its technology headquarters in Hong Kong, committing up to US$150 million to the venture and promising to create highly skilled technology jobs in the city.

The government has welcomed WeBank’s initiative, with the Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau (FSTB) and Invest Hong Kong (InvestHK) working together to assist in the establishment of the technology company’s headquarters in Hong Kong.

WeBank’s technology company headquarters in Hong Kong will serve as a base for its R&D activities and provide commercialising technology solutions for global markets. 

As a key participant, contributor, and beneficiary of the Belt and Road Initiative, Hong Kong was chosen by WeBank for its vision, readiness to embrace frontier technologies, and vibrant fintech ecosystem. Additionally, Hong Kong’s well-established international financial services sector made it an ideal location for the bank’s new headquarters.

Alpha Lau, director-deneral of InvestHK, said, “The establishment of WeBank’s operation in Hong Kong has been the result of extensive co-ordination between the FSTB and InvestHK to ensure that the company is well positioned for success upon commencing its activities in our city. The numerous strategic enterprises that have recently announced the opening of international research and development (R&D) centres and headquarters in Hong Kong is clear evidence that our city possesses clear advantages in enabling globally scaled companies to achieve their ambitions. InvestHK warmly welcomes WeBank and remains fully committed to facilitating the establishment and growth of forward-thinking enterprises in our dynamic and vibrant business environment.”

Meanwhile, Li Nanqing, President of WeBank, shared, “Hong Kong has emerged as a centre of excellence in global business connectivity and financial technology innovation. It offers us an ideal environment to advance our innovation and expand our international footprint. We are excited to contribute to and benefit from the city’s dynamic fintech ecosystem, robust infrastructure, and strategic connectivity. We look forward to collaborating with local partners and stakeholders and attracting talent on this exciting next step of our journey.”

WeBank, serving over 4.5 million micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises and nearly 400 million individuals in Mainland China, is renowned for its inclusive financial services. Recognised by the International Data Corporation as a global digital banking benchmark, WeBank excels in fintech innovation, particularly in AI, blockchain, cloud computing, and big data. To date, it has filed over 3,800 patent applications.

Shenzhen, China — WeBank, a Chinese digital bank, has launched its new brand ‘WeBank Blockchain’ with an ethos of ‘New Opportunity, New Mission, New Journey’ at a launch conference.

At the launch event, WeBank proposed a new mission of building trusted Environmental and Social Governance (ESG) infrastructure to promote equity and sustainable development for its blockchain technology. Through this, WeBank will construct a trusted foundation for stakeholders engaged in strategies involving government, the business community and the general public.

NanqingLi, president of WeBank, said, “In the past seven years, WeBank Blockchain has accomplished two interim missions and met its goals to realize a technology that is secure, controllable and open-sourced achieving industrial digitalization.”

Li added, “Today, fintech is transforming from merely improving efficiency to promoting equity and sustainable development. WeBank will leverage its advantages in strategic positioning, agile trial-and-error experimentation, dedication to innovation and exploring cutting-edge technologies to promote equity and sustainability with WeBank Blockchain.”

WeBank started to navigate blockchain in 2015. One year later, it co-launched Financial Services Blockchain Consortium (FISCO BCCOS), the first blockchain consortium in China’s finance industry. Since then, driving the blockchain and fintech sector forward has been a core mission for the digital bank.

In 2017, WeBank realized its own secure and controllable blockchain technology and led the open-source development of FISCO BCOS, the financial-grade open-source consortium chain platform. After releasing the source code, WeBank has been actively promoting the application of blockchain for industrial digitalization, further boosting the development of the real economy in China.

Today, the open-source consortium chain ecosystem initiated by WeBank Blockchain along with other parties has attracted thousands of institutions and individual members. It has successfully supported the deployment of several hundred blockchain applications in various industries such as finance, legal and justice, healthcare, and more with more than 200 benchmarking applications for industrial digitalization.

Commenting on the launch of WeBank Blockchain, Henry Ma, executive VP and chief information officer of WeBank, said, “After nearly seven years of rapid development, WeBank Blockchain has completed building the foundation in terms of notion, technology and ecosystem and is ready to embark on a new journey.”

Meanwhile, Hata Fan, deputy general manager of technology development for the distributed business of WeBank and head of WeBank Blockchain, said that WeBank Blockchain plans to accomplish its new mission by driving ESG applications and talent cultivation based on the solid foundation of an open-sourced technology and ecosystem which are summarized as “2 foundations + 2 drives”.

To better promote ESG development, WeBank Blockchain will focus on key technologies used for privacy computing, trusted governance, distributed digital identity and more. It will develop the framework for ESG applications and build an open-source ecosystem promoting quick and efficient implementation of ESG programs. Through an open-source ecosystem, WeBank Blockchain will work with more partners to drive ESG applications and cultivate talent with both blockchain and ESG capabilities, which is expected to cover more than 100,000 training opportunities.