Blog

Faster Payment System

A gist of the blog:

Faster Payment System (FPS) has officially launched. It represents the start of a new era for Hong Kong’s retail payment system. It operates on a round-the-clock basis and enables the public to make instant transfer of funds anytime, anywhere, across different banks or stored value facilities (SVFs).

FPS is an open platform which can continuously support the bloom of the electronic payment market and provide diversified payment options to the public. FPS will significantly change the local retail payment ecology, facilitate healthy competition among the market, and provide brand new and better experience to users and merchants. Moreover, I will encourage government departments to actively explore the use of FPS, so as to provide the public with greater convenience in paying government bills or charges.

Apart from promoting the use of electronic payments, I also announced in the Budget to issue licenses for virtual banks. Although virtual banks have no physical branches, they must set up an office in Hong Kong and provide a protection limit of HK$500,000 per depositor per bank, same as the practice for conventional banks. Virtual banks will facilitate the use of financial services by small-and-medium enterprises and minorities in the community through enhancing service effectiveness and inclusiveness. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority has received around 30 applications for the licenses of virtual banks and is expected to start issuing the first batch of licenses by the end of this year.