Hong Kong Millennials Drive Digital Banking Delays

While most new recipients of Hong Kong digital banking licenses were planning to begin operations by 2019-end, higher priorities are in play for the city’s millennials – the key demographic for the sector – causing lenders to delay their launches.

Some players were believed to be launching brand and marketing campaigns as early as this month before formally launching their services. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority previously said that digital banking launches could be expected in the fourth quarter of 2019 at the earliest.

This form of banking service is mainly aimed at the youth, millennials, and many of them are out on the street these days joining the protests, citing an unnamed source with direct knowledge. It will be difficult to launch a brand campaign around them and attract their interest when their priority is clearly not having another bank account. The source added that the digital banks will now instead launch in early 2020.