Xiaomi-Backed Virtual Bank Announces Hong Kong Pilot

AirStar Bank has announced the launch of a pilot trial in Hong Kong, which will be conducted within the Hong Kong Monetary Authority’s Fintech Supervisory Sandbox.

About 2,000 friends and families of the staff of Airstar, Xiaomi Hong Kong and AMTD Group will be onboarded to the virtual bank to gather user feedback and gauge requirements ahead of a full roll-out, according to an announcement by the bank on Tuesday.

The bank is a joint venture virtual bank between Chinese electronics company Xiaomi and AMTD Group – Asia’s largest independent corporate finance and advisory house.

According to the announcement, Airstar will offer tiered-pricing savings deposits and time deposits, and is promising up to 1 percent per annum for HKD saving deposits between HKD 500,000 ($64,500) and HKD 1,000,000. It will also offer unsecured lending products at transparent pricing with interest accrual on a daily basis.

Airstar was among eight firms to receive a virtual bank license from HKMA in 2019. It is the second among the group to launch trials, following ZA Bank, which started operations in March this year.

Currently Xiami has commenced pilot trial onboarding round 2,000 customers from friends and families of the staff of Airstar, Xiaomi Hong Kong and AMTD Group.