China Construction Bank’s Financial Inclusion Loan Balance Exceeds 800 Billion Yuan as of May

649

One of China’s big six state-owned banks is touting the success of fintech-abetted efforts to expand financially inclusive lending.

China Construction Bank’s (CCB) financial inclusion loan balance exceeded 800 billion yuan as of the end of May this year, according to figures provided by CCB president Liu Guiping (刘桂平) at the a forum held by Shanghai Jiaotong University on 15 June.

CCB’s financial inclusion customers are fast approaching 1.5 million, while financial inclusion loans by CCB increased by nearly 150 billion yuan in the first five months of 2019, putting it first amongst China’s big state-owned banks.

Liu said that the use of the internet, big data, artificial intelligence, cloud computing and big data to drive financial inclusion had already become an “irreversible trend” amongst China’s commercial banks.

“At present the world is currently undergoing rapid evolution from the industrial age to the information age, and the foundational base of information is digital.

“Financial inclusion is no longer finance for the poor, micro-finance or grassroots finance in the traditional sense, and has instead become the use of digitised technology and market-based operation to raise the coordination and inclusiveness of the financial system, expand the breadth and depth of financial services, and ensure equal financial rights that encompass the masses in a new era.”