China’s first online bank witnesses innovative development after Premier’s visit

2017-07-10
english.gov.cn/The Beijing News

The first lending business carried out by Qianhai Webank, witnessed and inspired by Premier Li Keqiang, has drawn great attention from the society, with a popular saying “a small step made by Webank, a big step for financial reform.”

As the first private and e-bank, Webank has been attached great importance by Premier Li. During his inspection, he expressed his expectation that Webank can find its own value in the internet financial field and set up an example for inclusive finance, small loan companies and micro and small banks.

Since its first lending business, the bank has followed its own development path with differentiated market positioning and targeted service for small and micro enterprises, exploring a development model that is fit for its future growth in the inclusive financing sector.

According to the CEO of the Webank, there are at least 70 million QQ users, among which 50 million have financial needs. And the bank will continue its differentiated development path in the inclusive financing sector as required by the Premier.

During Premier Li’s inspection in 2015, he encouraged Webank to further lower interest rates to support “mass entrepreneurship and innovation”, especially the development of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

Premier Li’s remark has further clarified the specific development path for Webank, and by April in 2017, registered customer for the bank has reached 27.49 million with total assets of 52 billion yuan.

The Webank, as expected by the Premier, has made up for the weakness of traditional financial industries on the personal consumption loans. The bank, based on the big data analysis, can provide financing services to those who are not qualified for the traditional financing service.

According the bank’s senior staff, bank has an appraisal system to evaluate customer’s overall risk and credibility. The online evaluation will only take 10 minutes before the customer’s account can received the loan.

Within two years, the lending business has achieved great success with accumulated loan of 34 billion yuan and the number of customers reached beyond 21 million.

Since its establishment in 2014, strong financing technology is a powerful support for Webank’s innovative services.

The bank has carried out an “artificial intelligence + block chain + cloud computing + big data” strategy in its bank information system construction, and has applied science-tech innovation such as face recognition and intelligent robots in its financing services.

Based on regular risk management, they have made full use of the internet and big data to build a brand new prevention system to control credit risks, and construct a “risk firewall” that Premier Li required, said the bank chief.

In the next 10 years, Webank will endeavor to provide a fair, convenient and effective financing services for 30 million SMEs and 300 million people. It will try to open up a new path for inclusive financing with light assets, open platforms and low operation costs, the bank chief added.