The head of the world’s biggest bank in terms of assets has stressed the critical importance of big data and fintech to future operations.
In an interview with 21st Century Business Herald Gu Shu (谷澍), president of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), said that “banks in future will be like fintech companies to a definite extent.”
“There must be greater usage of technological methods in terms of banking operations, instead of just depending upon humans for operations.
“As former ICBC chair Jiang Jianqing (姜建清) said, we need to achieve a transition from ‘bank digitization’ to digitized banking,’ and shift banking operations policy and strategic formulation from ‘dependence on experience’ to ‘dependence on data.'”
ICBC has taken a leading role within China when it comes fintech strategy and adoption.
On 8 May of this year ICBC established its fintech subsidiary, while on 4 November it established its own fintech research academy, and on 8 November it launched its “smart banking ecosystem” ECOS.
According to Gu Shu ICBC currently has a 16,000 member-strong fintech workforce, which is the largest amongst China’s big state-owned banks.
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