Since the start of 2019 Chinese commercial banks have increasingly entered collaborative arrangements with tech companies to drive their fintech adoption strategies.
On 6 August Industrial Bank Co. executed a strategic cooperative agreement with Ant Financial, covering the areas of wealth management, financial inclusion, green finance, investment bank, consumer finance and fintech.
Industrial Bank president Tao Yiping (陶以平) said that the lender was currently in the process of “comprehensively driving” the creation of an open bank.
At least ten other commercial banks in China have entered collaborative arrangements with tech or fintech companies since the start of 2019, as fintech adoption increasingly becomes imperative for competition.
| Time of agreement | Bank | Tech/ fintech company | Cooperative Areas |
| 9 July | Industrial and Commercial Bank of China | Tencent | Cloud computing, big data, artificial intelligence, innovative financial services |
| 26 June | Everbright Bank | Ping An Good Doctor | Integration of healthcare and financial services, creation of a “healthcare + finance” ecosystem |
| 12 June | Everbright Bank | Du Xiaoman Financial | Smart voice robots, risk-control and anti-fraud, robo-advisory, smart sales, smart outlet conversion |
| 4 June | Bank of Bohai | 360 Jinrong | Payments and settlement, financial inclusion, retail finance, corporate finance |
| 29 May | China Zheshang Bank | Ant Financial | Fintech, financial inclusion, new retail, financial advisory and consulting |
| 22 May | Industrial Bank | Suning | Consumer finance, fintech |
| 22 May | Bank of Jiangsu | China Unicom | Creation of a “5G Innovation Lab,” exploration of artificial intelligence such as facial recognition, image recognition and voice recognition to “smart customer services.” |
| 23 April | Bank of Ningxia | Huawei | Data centre planning and creation; cloud computing and big data innovation |
| 23 April | Shanghai Pudong Development Bank | Baidu, China Mobile | Joint launch of the “digital person” development plan; upgrade of financial services capability |
| 10 April | XW Bank | Kingsoft Cloud, Xiaomi Financial | Creation of “new technologies,” “new scenarios” and eventually a “new model” for fintech |
In addition to cooperation with tech companies, at least ten Chinese banks have launched their own fintech subsidiaries, including Industrial Bank, Ping An Bank, China Merchants Bank, China Everbright Bank, China Construction Bank, China Minsheng Bank, Huaxia Bank, Bank of Beijing, ICBC and Bank of China.
