The HKU FinTech Index Series Project recently released FGI, the Hong Kong FinTech Growth Index, along with FBI, the Hong Kong FinTech Buzz Index. This move was executed to check regional FinTech firms’ attitudes and their typical sentiment for the industry, as documented by regional media. The project entrenched over a period of 5 years is funded by Suoxinda Data Technology Co. Ltd, which has its headquarters in Shenzhen.
The undertaking was started by Versitech Ltd, the technology transfer company, and is directed by Dr Philip Yu from the Department of Statistics & Actuarial Science of the Faculty of Science.
Dr. Yu, said that,
FGI provides a reference for different stakeholders such as policymakers, business partners or investors who are looking to build their strategic business plan, while FBI captures society’s sentiment from Fintech-related news reports. It serves as an important indication to show the market confidence of the industry and provides insights to investors and to the government in policy formulation and implementation.
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The index manifests the responses of 38 companies in a yearly survey chosen by an Advisory Board that has experts from HKU as well as the regional FinTech industry, which includes officials from InvestHK, FinTech Association of Hong Kong, Science Park, The Bank of East Asia, Limited and Cyberport. It is correlated with the companies’ reactions in the mean duration of 2018-2019 fixed over 100 points.
Dr. Yu, said that,
Hong Kong’s quarterly FinTech Buzz Indices in 2019 show values higher than 100, indicating an overall positive perception of the Fintech sector which boost confidence for growth. However, the index in 2019Q3 has dropped slightly to 104.5 compared with Q2, which may be due to the unfolding impact of US-China trade tension and an unstable political environment in Hong Kong. With a further economic downturn forecast by the government, the FinTech industry is likely to face more challenges in the near future.
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The motive of the series of HKU FinTech Index, in the long run, is to ascertain a system to be expanded to the Greater Bay Area encompassing Shenzhen as well as some other adjacent cities. It also marks a period of stronger growth in the economy of Hong Kong.
