PolyFinances, a leading student finance and technology committee from Polytechnique Montréal, visited Hong Kong as part of its 2026 international mission on fintech and market transformation, with Wizpresso honoured to be one of their key stops at Cyberport.
PolyFinances’ 2026 International Mission
PolyFinances is a student committee founded in 2011 at Polytechnique Montréal that brings together engineers from multiple disciplines to bridge engineering with finance. During the 2025/26 cohort, the committee focused its annual international mission on “Fintech and Market Transformation,” comparing how global financial centres such as Montréal, Singapore, and Hong Kong are redefining financial services and capital markets through digital innovation.
A delegation of around 20 PolyFinances members and academic leaders spent 14 to 18 May 2026 in Hong Kong to study fintech and financial market transformation on the ground. Hong Kong’s role as a digital asset and cross‑border finance hub, supported by active regulatory innovation around virtual assets and CBDC initiatives, made it a natural destination for the mission. Cyberport, as a flagship digital technology community and incubator, provided the ideal environment for the delegation to learn from companies across AI, RegTech, digital payments, and capital markets infrastructure.
The Cyberport and Wizpresso Visit Programme
On 18 May 2026, the delegation visited Cyberport’s Smart Living Lab for a dedicated programme. The group comprised undergraduate and graduate engineering students, together with senior academics including Nathalie de Marcellis‑Warin, CEO & President of CIRANO, and Robert Normand, Research Director at CIRANO.
The visit included an introduction to Cyberport, a community member sharing session with Wizpresso founder and CEO Calvin Cheng, an interactive Q&A, and a guided tour of the Digital Tech Centre. This programme gave participants both a strategic view of Hong Kong’s innovation landscape and a practical look at how startups deploy AI and advanced technologies.
At the Digital Tech Centre, the delegation experienced an immersive showcase of Cyberport community companies’ solutions, demonstrating how artificial intelligence, blockchain, and Web3.0 are being integrated into everyday life. Exhibits across the “Efficiency,” “Security,” and “Interactive Experience” zones highlighted real‑world applications in education, healthcare, and smart cities.
These demonstrations offered concrete examples of “technology for the people,” showing how digital infrastructure can improve market efficiency, strengthen resilience, and enable new financial business models. The experience also underscored Cyberport’s role in advancing Hong Kong’s ambition to be an international hub for AI and innovation.
Learning from Wizpresso’s RegTech Journey
During the sharing session, Wizpresso presented its entrepreneurial journey building a RegTech company in Asia. Founded in Hong Kong, Wizpresso focuses on automating compliance and governance workflows for financial institutions and listed companies, operating at the intersection of AI, regulation, and capital markets.
Calvin Cheng reflected on lessons learned from launching and scaling a RegTech startup across diverse regulatory regimes and fast‑moving markets. He discussed working with regulators and exchanges, navigating regulatory sandboxes, and designing products that align with both global standards and local market requirements. The session highlighted the importance of responsible AI, robust data governance, and ESG transparency in modern financial markets.
The delegation also learned about Wizpresso’s mission to build global trust infrastructure that helps international firms monitor compliance and manage regulatory risk with confidence. Wizpresso’s AI‑driven systems analyse disclosures, transactions, and market signals at scale while maintaining strict standards of auditability and governance.
For PolyFinances, this offered a focused case study on how AI and automation can be embedded into financial market infrastructure to enhance transparency, investor protection, and market integrity. Discussions explored how engineers trained in data science, software, and industrial engineering can contribute to next‑generation compliance technologies—from intelligent monitoring and anomaly detection to ESG verification and AI governance.
Inspiring Future Engineer‑Financiers
PolyFinances’ members, drawn from industrial, mechanical, computer, software, data science, aerospace, and biomedical engineering, brought a strong quantitative and analytical mindset to the visit. Their prior experience with real‑world missions, consulting mandates, and managing a stock portfolio prepared them to engage deeply with the themes of fintech, RegTech, and digital markets.
By connecting directly with Cyberport and Wizpresso, the delegation saw how technical skills translate into impact in regulatory technology and financial innovation across Asia. Wizpresso was proud to support this cross‑border learning journey and to help inspire a new generation of engineer‑financiers committed to building a more transparent, resilient, and technology‑enabled global financial system.
