A joint-venture led by Bank of China (Hong Kong), JD.com and Jardine Matheson is among the first batch of three winners for Hong Kong’s online-only banking license.
It’s part of the efforts for Hong Kong to reform its old-fashioned banking system. The city now has 155 licensed banks.
The joint-venture, named Livi VB, is co-owned by Bank of China (Hong Kong), a fully-owned subsidiary of JD Digits and a Jardine Matheson unit with 44%, 36% and 20% shares respectively. It has an initial investment of HK$ 2.5 billion (US$ 318 million).
The Hong Kong Monetary Authority also granted the license for two other groups, including a joint venture established by Hong Kong telecom services provider PCCW, HKT Trust, Standard Chartered and Ctrip.com International Ltd.
The third one went to Zhong An Virtual Finance, a joint venture between ZhongAn Online and Sinolink.