The world’s biggest bank is touting plans to expand cooperation with Chinese tech giant Tencent on the development of innovative fintech applications.
On 9 July Chen Siqing (陈四清), chair of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), led a delegation on an official visit to Tencent’s headquarters in Shenzhen to discuss bank-enterprise cooperation and the application and growth potential of fintech with Tencent CEO Pony Ma Huateng (马化腾).
Chen said that while cooperation between ICBC and Tencent had its foundations in settlement services and Tenpay’s payment operations, it had since expanded to encompass a full range of corporate financial services, cross-border operations, online finance operations as well as innovative cooperation in multiple other areas.
Chen hopes that in future ICBC and Tencent will engage in further sharing and cooperation in the areas of cloud computing, big data, artificial intelligence and innovative financial services, as well as drive comprehensive cooperation in the areas of corporate finance, online finance, virtual banking and fintech.
Pony Ma said that in future Tencent will continue to invest resources in the development of cloud-based services, with a view to achieving further breakthroughs with ICBC in the area of cloud-driven financial services.
Tencent will also make use of the open capabilities afforded by its WeChat platform to develop more online financial services with ICBC, and further deepen cooperation in the area of rapid payments.
