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One of Hong Kong’s oldest lenders is stepping up its push into digital finance, teaming up with newly listed digital asset exchange HashKey Exchange to launch a co-branded credit card in the first half of next year.
Shanghai Commercial Bank (SCB), which marked its 75th anniversary this year, will partner with HashKey Exchange to issue a Visa credit card exclusively for investors trading on the digital asset platform, according to chief executive Wallace Lam Wing-ted.
HashKey, one of 11 licensed virtual asset trading platforms in Hong Kong, raised HK$1.6 billion (US$206 million) in the city’s first crypto-native initial public offering and was listed on December 17.
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“The credit card will be the first of its kind in Asia under a partnership between a traditional lender and a digital trading platform,” Lam said in an exclusive interview.
Shanghai Commercial Bank has more than 40 branches in the city, and offices in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, London, Shanghai and Shenzhen. Photo: Roy Issa alt=Shanghai Commercial Bank has more than 40 branches in the city, and offices in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, London, Shanghai and Shenzhen. Photo: Roy Issa>
Lam said the credit card would mark only the first phase of the collaboration, with SCB and HashKey planning to explore additional products, services and risk-management frameworks that bridge traditional finance and digital assets.
The partnership forms part of SCB’s broader digital transformation strategy as it looks to remain competitive in a rapidly evolving banking landscape.
The lender, which mainly serves wealthy families and mainland Chinese companies, plans to invest HK$1.6 billion over the next five years to upgrade its digital capabilities, Lam said.
The bank joins a host of traditional lenders such as HSBC, Bank of East Asia and Bank of China (Hong Kong) that have invested massively into digital transformation. This comes as the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) launched a five-year fintech strategy in November, urging banking and finance firms to deploy artificial intelligence and blockchain to strengthen the city’s position as a leading fintech hub.
SCB would deploy the investment gradually between 2026 and 2030, starting with the introduction of a revamped mobile app in the first half of next year, Lam said. It will be followed by upgrades to other digital platforms and fintech capabilities for corporate and wealth management clients.
“We have many individual customers who have been with us for decades,” Lam said. “However, if we want to continue to serve the children and grandchildren of these customers, we need to upgrade our apps as the younger generation uses their mobile phones for everything.”
He said the bank was also renovating select branches into wealth management centres to compete with larger rivals, while the investment in fintech was aimed at capturing business from mainland enterprises that want to go global through SCB’s branch network.
“Many mainland businessmen prefer mobile phones for doing all their banking transactions,” he said. “The strengthening of our mobile apps is an important step to capture these mainland customers whom we can serve in major financial centres globally.”
One of the main initiatives of the HKMA’s Fintech 2030 strategy focuses on banks’ use of data and technology to make it easier for SMEs to secure loans, and facilitate cross-border payments and other transactions.
“As SMEs now can easily sell their products around the world through e-commerce platforms, our global network can help SMEs with their banking needs wherever they need it,” Lam said.
The bank’s predecessor, The Shanghai Commercial & Savings Bank, was set up by entrepreneur Chen Kwang-pu in 1915 in Shanghai. In 1950, the Hong Kong branch became Shanghai Commercial Bank, which now has more than 40 branches in the city, and offices in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, London, Shanghai and Shenzhen.
“Shanghai Commercial Bank has been actively involved in many HKMA sandbox experiments in recent years, and we will continue to take part in evolving the technology for the banking sector to cut down costs and enhance operational efficiency,” Lam said.
The bank was also actively adopting AI to provide its wealth management bankers with tools to deliver investment advice tailored to the needs of its customers in Hong Kong and the mainland, he said.
The strong stock market rally in Hong Kong, where the Hang Seng Index has gained more than 30 per cent this year, drove SCB’s first-half non-interest income 44 per cent higher from a year earlier, which helped the lender grow its operating income by 13.7 per cent.
“Overall, 2025 has been a very good and profitable year, and we expect the outlook in 2026 to remain mostly positive,” Lam said.
This article originally appeared in the South China Morning Post (SCMP), the most authoritative voice reporting on China and Asia for more than a century. For more SCMP stories, please explore the SCMP app or visit the SCMP’s Facebook and Twitter pages. Copyright © 2025 South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.
Copyright (c) 2025. South China Morning Post Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.