Reuters reveals Hong Kong banks gird for online-only onslaught

Reuters reported exclusively that Hong Kong’s biggest banks are set to cut fees, boost digital services and jazz up branches with features such as touch-screen display panels to meet competition from new online-only lenders in one of the world’s most profitable banking markets. As many as eight so-called virtual, or online-only, banks are set to be launched in the Chinese territory this year, posing the biggest challenge in years to a stronghold for lenders including HSBC and Standard Chartered.