One of China’s leading commercial lenders has launched a new initiative to foster collaborative fintech development with some of the world’s biggest IT companies.
Shanghai Pudong Development Bank (SPD Bank) has just unveiled plans for the creation of a “Tech Cooperative Community” (科技合作共同体), with the execution of memorandums of cooperation with 16 domestic and overseas tech companies including China Unionpay Data, Microsoft, IBM, SAS, Temenos and Teradata.
According to SPD Bank the community will be an “open, joint-sharing, jointly established win-win ecosystem platform” comprised of banks, tech companies and research organisations.
The community will focus on long-term development and collaboration between members, as opposed to the traditional contractual model for cooperation between banks and tech companies involving short-term projects or procurements.
Jiang Tong (蒋瞳), the head of SPD Bank’s IT department, said that the community will also see the use of new business models including seminars, forums and competitions, and the establishment of a succession of “agile combat teams.”
“By means of these new models the bank can rapidly apply innovative technologies, and tech applications can continually improve and develop amidst the bank’s actual operations,” said Jiang.
The move by SPD Bank follows the establishment of the “Internet Ecosystem Coordination Platform” (互联网生态协同平台) by several of CITIC Group’s finance vehicles.
