AirStar, a virtual banking service provider backed by Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi, has now announced the launch of a pilot program in Hong Kong. The company has revealed that the pilot trial for the service will be conducted within the Hong Kong Monetary Authority’s Fintech Supervisory Sandbox.

As a part of this pilot project, the company will be onboarding around 2,000 users on the platform, which will be employees of Airstar, Xiaomi Hong Kong and AMTD Group as well as their friends and family members. This will help the company gather user feedback and gauge requirements ahead of a full roll-out.

Airstar will be offering tiered-pricing savings deposits with an interest rate of up to 1% per annum for deposits between HK$500,000 and HK$1 million. Customers also have flexibility to customize the time deposit maturity dates, such as a 8-day, 19-day or 27-day time deposit. They can also terminate the time deposit anytime prior to maturity without any penalty or surcharge.

Unsecured lending products will also be available to customers with transparent pricing and the interest will accrue on a daily basis. The company says that customers can repay in advance without paying any handling fees.

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Commenting on this development, Airstar’s spokesperson said, “Airstar strives to embrace innovation and financial inclusion, and promotes ‘Financial Innovation for Everyone’. We truly believe Airstar will be a valuable contributor to the banking industry in Hong Kong, and become ‘Everyone’s Bank’.”

Airstar Bank is a joint venture between Chinese electronics company Xiaomi and AMTD Group – Asia’s largest independent corporate finance and advisory house. It was among the eight firms to receive a virtual bank license from HKMA in 2019 and is the second to launch trials, following ZA Bank. It is expected to officially begin operations in July 2020.

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