For banks, fintech holds key
Chinese banks are highlighting the importance of financial technologies, or fintech, for client acquisition, service improvement and risk management amid intensified competition between financial institutions and fintech firms.
Financial services firm EY defines fintech firms as “organizations combining innovative business models and technology to enable, enhance and disrupt financial services”.
Fintech firms have seen a wide adoption of their services in China in different fields, including money transfer and payments, financial planning, and borrowing.
Sixty-nine percent of digitally active consumers in the Chinese mainland use fintech services, according to online interviews conducted by EY this year on fintech adoption across 20 markets.
The EY report said that “consumers are drawn to fintech services because propositions are simpler, more convenient, more transparent and more readily personalized. This has a ripple effect across the industry as consumers come to expect these characteristics in all financial products”, regardless of whether such products are related to retail banking, wealth management or insurance.
The booming fintech services have already enabled some Chinese internet-based companies to make considerable progress in the financial sector.
Liu Jianjun, executive vice-president of China Merchants Bank Co Ltd, said, “I don’t think traditional