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.
“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.
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.
