Tencent Will Build Virtual Bank After Getting A New License

Tencent will build a new blockchain-based virtual bank after the Chinese internet giant got its new license approval by the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission. In our cryptocurrency news today, we are reading more about this great news.

Speaking at the world blockchain summit in Wuzhen, China back on Friday, the blockchain chief of Tencent Yige Cai stated that the company’s virtual bank received the greet light form the Securities and Exchange Commission in Hong Kong. The company will also form a team that will support the blockchain-based banking platform according to the Chinese media site Sina Finance.

 “Hong Kong’s new regulations and supervision on digital assets transactions validates the importance of blockchain technology and digital assets, which is good news for the whole industry,” explained Cai during his speech at the summit.

The SFC granted virtual bank licenses to 12 entities so far and on the list is Infinium Limited which is a joint venture between Tencent, Commerce Bank of China (ICBC) and Industrial, but also two more institutional investors from Hong Kong. Tencent renamed the Infinium to Fusion Bank back in July after they got one license in May.

Cai didn’t provide any further details about the virtual bank but he stressed that Tencent will build further projects and will also work on the already existing ones, including the offering of a supply chain financing for the global fast-food chain restaurant McDonald’s, according to the reports.

According to another report, Cai is now leading the consortium blockchain group away from the three blockchain development groups in Tencent. The other two groups are responsible for blockchain infrastructure and its blockchain-based cloud services, respectively. Other companies include Alibaba’s fintech arm Ant Financial and SC Digital Solutions Limited which have a 65 percent stake that is owned by Standard and Chartered Bank. The SFC issues more details about their new licensing system that will regulate virtual asset transactions on Wednesday, by creating a much similar framework to the one that is currently overseeing the security brokers in the country.

China is going hard into blockchain technology as we saw previously when president Xi Jinping stated that the country should invest more and embrace it which was one of the catalysts for the spike in prices on the market.