Hong Kong is the latest country in Asia Pacific to establish a fintech hub and adopt a "sandbox" approach to regulating financial start-ups. Bloomberg reports that the Hong Kong Monetary Authority has announced the formation of a Fintech Innovation Hub, which will provide resources to banks and payment companies to allow them to conduct proof of concept trials of new products and services. They will be able to conduct trials without having to comply fully with the HKMA's usual requirements. Hong Kong's move follows similar initiatives in Singapore and Australia. HSBC has launched a mobile app that uses facial recognition, allowing customers to open accounts by taking a selfie, CNBC reports. Available to business customers in Europe, the app compares the selfie with pre-loaded photo ID. The bank said half its business accounts were now opened online. Three former bond underwriters employed by different commercial banks in China are the latest to be detained as the government's four-year investigation into illegal trading in the interbank bond market continues to widen. The Chinese online news service Caixin reports that widespread illegal trading in the interbank bond market in 2013 was exposed amid a string of scandals, and led to the arrest of several executives at high-profile financial institutions, including so-called bond market king Yang Hui, then the managing director of fixed income at China's largest securities firm, CITIC Securities.