Banking

Hong Kong’s Most popular temple goes cashless

Name: 8th Anti-Corruption Compliance Asia Pacific Summit 2020
Start: 2020-03-26T09:00:00+08:00
End: 2020-03-27T17:30:00+08:00
Location: Mandarin Orchard Singapore

Now Taoism believers or anyone who wants to have their wishes come true can scan a QR code and make a cash payment to the temple of their mighty God

Published

2 years ago

February 19, 2018

Headline Editor

Consider Wong Tai Sin Temple, the place where people in Hong Kong go to make a wish, lining up to light incense sticks in the first hour of the Chinese Lunar New Year.

Although the Great Immortal Wong is famous for saying “what you get is what you request”, many believe he will also make wishes come faster if he sees more donations (which literally means adding incense and oil money).

And that explains why Wong Tai Sin received HK$360 million (US$46 million) in cash donations in its latest financial year, making it a very profitable enterprise that could be compared to a mid-sized listed company in Hong Kong.

On top of this comes the magic of Alibaba Group’s Jack Ma and CK Hutchison’s Li Ka-shing. Alipay Hong Kong, a joint venture between the two richest men in China and Hong Kong, yesterday launched a new feature for donations via mobile phones.

Now Taoism believers or anyone who wants to have their wishes come true can scan a QR code and make a cash payment to the temple of their mighty God.

Peer-to-peer (P2P) payment is not something new

Alipay is the first payment operator to come up with the idea of relaying electronic red packets over Chinese New Year, although WeChat by Tencent is probably credited for making it even more popular.

And Wong Tai Sin is one of the most innovative sacred places. The most popular temple in Hong Kong has gone online and offers services for online blessings, drawing divination and worship.

Source link

Banking

Thailand’s banks to reach unbanked customers

In this Global Platform video, Tan Choon Hin, CEO of United Overseas Bank Thailand, discusses industry trends across ASEAN, including regional integration and the push towards Industry 4.0.

Published

1 week ago

February 19, 2020

Oxford Business Group

For Thailand, the digitalisation strategy that is being pursued under Thailand 4.0 is improving internet infrastructure, which in turn is opening up opportunities for digital banking.

(more…)

Banking

Thai banks slash growth forecast around 2%

Thai growth may be around 2% or less, said two major Thai commercial banks and a senior official of the Bank of Thailand.

Published

2 weeks ago

February 13, 2020

Bahar Karaman

Several major Thai banks have drastically reduced their GDP growth forecast for 2020 citing the coronavirus epidemic, drought and fiscal delays.

(more…)

Banking

Governments most exposed to coronavirus have strong fiscal and external buffers

Moody’s baseline assumption is that the economic effects of the outbreak will continue for a number of weeks, after which they will tail off and normal economic activity will resume.

Published

2 weeks ago

February 11, 2020

Boris Sullivan

As measures to contain the coronavirus and fear of contagion hit consumption and production, downside risks to our GDP growth forecast for China (A1 stable) have increased., says Moody’s Research Announcement.

(more…)