HKSTP unveils R&D environment for testing fintech innovations

Banks and tech firms can use Fintech Virtual Lab to build and test innovations.

The Hong Kong Science and Technology Park Corporation (HKSTP) has unveiled its Fintech Virtual Lab, with the aim of accelerating fintech research and development and commercialization in Hong Kong.

The lab, announced during Hong Kong Fintech Week 2021, also aims to discuss how finance, science and technology can address climate risk, HKSTP said in a press release.
  
Under FinTech Virtual Lab—under HKSTP’s flagship STP Platform and supported by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA)—banks, institutions, and tech ventures will now have a research and development environment where they can build and test their latest fintech innovations. 
 
Bank of China (Hong Kong), Hang Seng Bank and HSBC are amongst the first institutions to join the FinTech Virtual Lab, and are the first to pioneer the lab’s Federated Learning Network.

Powered by WeBank, the Federated Learning Network it offers a secure way for financial institutions, tech ventures and external data providers to build collaborative machine-learning models together, whilst allowing each company to keep data at their source, according to HKSTP. 

Participating companies will reportedly benefit from more powerful AI models by aggregating the insights from each other’s data, without the need to disclose their data and therefore, safeguard data privacy, it added.

HKSTP said that they plan to introduce similar tools and environments for other industries in the near future.