Exploring The Evolving Fintech/Insurtech Regulatory Landscapes For China, Hong Kong & Singapore
by Ong Kai Kiat December 8, 2016A lot of link has been spilled about the potential of fintech and insurtech for the Asia Pacific region. However, we don’t have as much reports which looks at these two industries from the point of regulatory risks and trends. This is important because brilliant technologies can suffer regulatory setbacks.
For instance, Uber was suffered from regulatory flip-flops in Indonesia since its entry in 2014. The President of Indonesia rolled back the ban in December 2015 but 12,000 protesters challenged Uber’s legality in March 2016. The latest news in December 2016 is that regulations have changed again and car-hailing companies are obliged by the new Transport Minister to join a cooperative.
Regulators have changed their minds over classification of Uber cars as private or public transport. They are also unable to confirm if the latest requirements would be the final solution as different groups put their case forward. The Uber example shows that regulatory risks are real and should be taken seriously.
Therefore, it is timely that a major international law firm, Baker and McKenzie, had published a report on the regulatory landscape for fintech and insurtech. The report covers 10 Asian economies of China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. The comprehensive report was published in June 2016 and we will look at their highlights in this article in China, Hong Kong and Singapore due to space constraints.
China – Evolving Regulatory Landscape, Multiple Agencies & Fraud
The Chinese situation is complex. On one hand, the Chinese government is supportive of the fintech sector which will play an important role for the economy. On the other hand, the regulatory landscape in China is highly fragmented and licenses are difficult to obtain.
Entrepreneurs will have to juggle between 4 agencies (PBOC, CSRC, CIRC, MIIT) to get their license in the fintech and insurtech sectors. The government acknowledge the red tapes and are considering to set up a centralized agency but this is work in progress. Japan and Taiwan shined in this area as they have a single agency for fintech. Besides getting license at the central government level, entrepreneurs would also have to get license from the provincial level in certain cases. That said, these hurdles had not damped the growth in fintech.
via fintechnews.hk
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