CANBERRA: The Commonwealth Bank of Australia has launched an Innovation Lab in Hong Kong as the financial institution seeks to drive the fintech industry forward by connecting its customers with local start-ups to solve problems in the finance sector.
The lab provides space for start-ups to gather and discuss their ideas, and also offers a host of data tracking and live-testing facilities to start-ups who lack such resources. It makes use of eye-tracking and other technology to help companies test and improve their digital platforms.
“[It] is a space where we can bring together people to co-create solutions,” said Kelly Bayer Rosmarin, group executive for institutional banking and markets at Australia’s Commonwealth Bank. “It involves embracing the fintech community, whom we see as excellent partners for banks,” she added.
Commonwealth Bank established its first Innovation Lab in Sydney in the middle of 2014. The Hong Kong venue represents its first such lab on foreign shores. Plans are in the pipeline for a similar space in London later this year.
“A lot of people talk about disruption and paint it as an either-or. It’s either the banks, or the fintech disruptors who are going to win, but we don’t see it that way,” said Bayer Rosmarin.
She said her bank can pass on its experience in banking and help fintech start-ups bring their ideas to market by testing them with the bank’s customer base. The bank is now in talks with several fintech start-ups in Hong Kong to use its lab, Bayer Rosmarin said. She declined to reveal any names.
