FinTech Association of Hong Kong Partners with FinTech Australia to Help Encourage Closer Collaboration

The FinTech Association of Hong Kong (FTAHK) and FinTech Australia have signed a memorandum of understanding to strengthen the ties between each others FinTech industries and lift support for businesses seeking investment, partnerships and expansion into each others markets.Australia and Hong Kong have enjoyed a close trade and investment relationship that extends back over 70 years. Hong Kong is already Australia's seventh most important destination for services exports, valued at AUD$2.4bn in 2016, and sixth largest source of services imports, valued at AUD$3bn.Both countries enjoy significant government and regulatory support for their FinTech communities. In July 2017, the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission signed a FinTech co-operation agreement, creating a framework to support and understand financial innovation in each market.The memorandum of understanding was witnessed by Sam Guthrie, Deputy Consul-General (Commercial) & Senior Trade Commissioner for Hong Kong & Macau, Australian Trade and Investment Commission (Austrade), as well as by Marc Entwistle, FTAHK Board Member and Co-Chair of Partnerships.FTAHK and FinTech Australia plan to build further industry-to-industry ties by working together to:

• Support businesses seeking investment, partnerships and/or entry into each others markets
• Increase investment by VCs into companies in each others markets by facilitating connections to investors
• Facilitate connections to banks/insurance firms in each market
• Encourage greater regulatory harmonisation by exchanging information on policy developments
• Collaborate on initiatives such as research to help better understand each others markets

Musheer Ahmed, Interim General Manager of FTAHK, said, Partnerships like this are critical to ensuring the sustained success of the global FinTech industry. The ties between Hong Kong and Australia have historically always been strong and we look forward to improving them still further.Danielle Szetho, Chief Executive Officer of FinTech Australia, said, Hong Kong and Australia have highly complementary FinTech industries, each with growing Blockchain, RegTech, Data/AI and Cyber Security capabilities. This agreement will build on our strong ongoing relationship as we support each other in helping local participants in both markets. We look forward to working together to ensure the continued success of FinTech.About the FinTech Association of Hong KongThe FinTech Association of Hong Kong (FTAHK) is an independent, not-for-profit, member-driven organisation that is the voice of the FinTech community in Hong Kong. Members range from promising startups and passionate individuals to global financial institutions and service providers. FTAHK is currently led by a volunteer group of board members from the FinTech community who care about the future of FinTech in Hong Kong, greater China and Asia. The Associations three initial goals are to:

• Advocate create the unified voice for the Hong Kong FinTech ecosystem
• Collaborate bring together the diverse parts of the community
• Educate learn from existing leaders and nurture the next generation of talent

The Association is organised and led by the community for the community through a series of committees which will initially focus on the following areas of FinTech:

• Artificial Intelligence
• Big Data
• Blockchain
• Design & Experience
• Digital Banking
• Financial Literacy & Inclusion
• InsurTech
• Payments
• Policy/Advocacy
• RegTech
• Talent & Diversity
• WealthTech

For more information about the FinTech Association of Hong Kong and how you can join, go to: http://hkfintech.org/About FinTech AustraliaFinTech Australia is the national Industry Association for the Australian fintech community. Officially launched in March 2016 as a not-for-profit organisation, it provides a single united and independent voice for over 200 fintech Startups, Hubs, Accelerators and VCs across Australia. Its mission is to make Australia a leading market for fintech innovation and investment, working directly with Australia's Government and Regulatory community to create a fintech-friendly Policy and Investment environment, and has successfully advocated for initiatives such as the ASIC Regulatory Sandbox, Open Financial Data, Digital Currency regulations and improvements to Australias R&D and Early Stage Investor tax schemes.FinTech Australia also champions members' interests in the Media and via Austrade's networks through the creation of fintech-specific Research and Advocacy campaigns, such as the EY FinTech Australia Census. It also runs initiatives to connect Australia's fintech ecosystem, and to connect to leading fintech ecosystems internationally. Examples include the Collab/Collide National Summit in Melbourne, the Finnies Industry Awards in Sydney and our involvement as a launch member of the Global FinTech Hubs Federation.