Fintech Bank Nabs Ex-Hong Kong Finance Chief
June 8, 2018
A fintech-focused merchant bank has snapped up the services of Hong Kong’s former financial secretary.
The trend of bankers and finance heavyweights crossing over to join fintech firms moved up a notch in Asia. Ion Pacific, a Hong Kong-based merchant bank, appointed Hong Kong’s former financial secretary John Tsang Chun-wah as its vice-chairman, the bank said in a statement.
Tsang was Hong Kong’s longest-ever serving financial secretary. He held office for a decade until 2017, and took credit for steering the city’s finance industry through the 2008 global financial crisis.
High Profile Leaders Moving Into Fintech
While he was Hong Kong finance chief Tsang played a prominent role in promoting start-ups in the city. During the tenure he also pumped $560 million into expanding Hong Kong Science Park and launching a $260 million innovation and technology venture fund.
Other high profile finance leaders to embrace the move into fintech investing include Vikram Pandit, the former Citigroup chief executive. Pandit, a keen investor in fintech startups, teamed up with investment firm Atairos Group to launch a business that purchases stakes fintech firms.
Former Deutsche Bank co-CEO Anshu Jain joined Social Finance, known as SoFi, a web based lender, while John Mack, the former Credit Suisse and Morgan Stanley chief, is both – an investor in and a board member of peer-to-peer firm Lending Club.
