The peak body for the Chinese banking sector has highlighted the ability of 5G and Internet of Things (IoT) technology to have a transformative impact upon China’s financial ecosystem.
Gao Feng (高峰), the chief information officer for the China Banking Association (CBA), said that as a new form of infrastructure development, 5G will have an extremely large influence upon artificial intelligence (AI), IoT, cloud computing, augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), serving to create new growth points for the digital transformation of the financial sector.
Gao made the remarks on 17 May at the 5G and Smart Finance Conference held as part of the 2022 World Telecommunication and Information Society Day.
According to Gao the integration of 5G and AI will penetrate all areas of the financial sector, and prove especially useful when it comes to interactive services and achieving cost reductions via the replacement of human labour.
“It will drive improvements to facial recognition technology and smart risk control, helping to reduce the time required for asset matching, while also greatly increasing the efficiency of loan reviews and credit extension,” he said.
Gao points out that the “Fintech Development Plan (2022 – 2025)” (金融科技发展规划(2022-2025年) issued by the Chinese central bank at the end of last year places especially strong emphasis upon the integration of 5G with IoT.
“The incorporation of sensors, positioning and real-time monitoring into physical structures via IoT will help to expand financing channels for real enterprises, as well as provide technical support to the research and development of new products by the financial sector, and have a profound influence upon supply chain finance,” said Gao.
Gao believes that the data gathering capabilities of 5G will enable the financial sector to make use of IoT to achieve an integration between “virtual finance” and the real economy, pointing in particular to the development of innovative AR and VR-based sales models.
“We have found that some Internet banks and small and medium-sized banks have already started to make arrangements in the Metaverse, in particular the introduction of digital staff to provide service scenarios to clients that integrate the virtual and the real, and increase client retention,” said Gao.
