SHENZHEN, Dec. 24, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- On December 20, WeBank and Caixin Think Tank jointly released the "China Digital Inclusive Finance Development Report" (hereinafter referred to as the "Report"). With the academic support of the National Financial and Development Laboratory, the Report reviews the historical evolution and development achievements of my country's digital inclusive finance based on industry observations and financial institution cases, and deeply analyzes the current status and path trends of digital inclusive finance practice, and provides suggestions for promoting the high-quality development of my country's economy.
The report shows that since the formal proposal to develop "inclusive finance", China's inclusive finance has experienced a leapfrog development from service blind spots to wide coverage, from single credit to comprehensive services, and from digitalization to digital intelligence. In the past ten years, the development of inclusive finance has not only effectively alleviated the financing difficulties of small and micro enterprises and long-tail customer groups, but also promoted the overall improvement of the quality and efficiency of financial services through digital technology. As of the second quarter of 2024, the loan balance of banking financial institutions for small and micro enterprises reached 78 trillion yuan, an increase of 233% from the end of 2018; my country's mobile payment penetration rate reached 86%, ranking first in the world.
The report points out that as a new inclusive financial model driven by digital technology, digital inclusive finance forms an organic complement to traditional financial services with its characteristics of sharing, convenience, low cost and low threshold. This model not only broadens the boundaries of inclusive finance, but also has become a key driving force for promoting economic structure optimization, promoting innovation-driven development and enhancing social inclusiveness.
Technology-driven, digital technology innovation breaks the "impossible triangle"
In recent years, cutting-edge technologies represented by artificial intelligence, blockchain, big data, and cloud computing have been rapidly upgraded and have become the underlying technical support for the development of digital inclusive finance. From the perspective of trend changes, the report points out that the banking industry continues to increase its investment in the field of financial technology, accelerating the advancement of digital inclusive finance from "digitalization" to "digital intelligence".
The application of artificial intelligence technology not only improves the service efficiency of banks, but also helps optimize customer experience. The report deeply analyzes how commercial banks apply artificial intelligence technology to customer acquisition scenarios, identify customers' diverse needs, and provide customers with more accurate and efficient services. For example, compared with the traditional loan model, AIGC technology can help banks proactively review and grant credit to small and micro enterprises, shorten the service chain, and accurately meet customer needs.
In addition, how to solve the "impossible triangle" of scale, risk and return is a difficult problem that commercial banks need to solve urgently in the development of inclusive finance. The report mentioned that my country's first digital bank, WeBank, has provided a successful example for the industry to learn from. Based on the "Openhive" technology, the bank has built a leading domestic fully distributed banking core system, which is currently able to support massive customer scale and high concurrent transaction volume. The peak of financial transactions per day has exceeded 1.3 billion, and the IT operation and maintenance cost of a single account has been reduced to one-tenth of that of domestic and foreign peers. At the same time, it effectively prevents financial risks, demonstrating the competitiveness and development potential of digital banks driven by innovation.
Comprehensive upgrade to move towards a new model of diversified, comprehensive and open digital inclusive finance
With the improvement of the availability, coverage and satisfaction of inclusive finance, inclusive financial services have gradually moved from "increase in volume and expansion" to a high-quality development stage centered on customer needs. In the upgrading of service models, diversification, integration and openness are the key directions of digital inclusive financial innovation.
Specifically, in terms of diversified development, digital inclusive finance has expanded from single credit services to wider areas such as wealth management. The report focuses on banks' targeted service strategies for the general public and small and micro enterprises to meet the risk preferences and funding needs of different customer groups, including the "financial + non-financial" comprehensive services provided by some commercial banks to small and micro enterprises.
At the same time, opening up to the outside world has become an important path to promote the development of the industry. The report deeply sorted out the two major channels and advantages of the banking industry's opening up to the outside world: on the one hand, financial technology subsidiaries have become an important carrier for bank technology output, bridging the "digital divide" between large banks and small and medium-sized banks by exporting core systems, risk management and other solutions, and helping the digital transformation of the financial industry. On the other hand, the promotion of open source technology has further lowered the threshold for the use of digital technology, provided innovative impetus for the deep integration of finance and the real economy, and helped to build a shared and co-built digital financial ecosystem.
Cross-integration, "five major articles" point out the development direction of digital inclusive finance
The 2023 Central Financial Work Conference proposed to do a good job in "five major areas: science and technology finance, green finance, inclusive finance, elderly care finance, and digital finance", which pointed out the direction for the key service areas of digital inclusive finance. Among them, the combination of digital inclusive finance with science and technology finance, elderly care finance and green finance provides new solutions and solutions to problems in different fields.
The report points out that in the field of science and technology finance, the banking industry has used digital technology to continuously optimize credit processes and risk control systems, promoting a virtuous cycle of "technology-industry-finance"; in the field of pension finance, through digital elderly-friendly services, banks can provide more convenient financial management and savings services to remote areas and vulnerable groups; in the field of green finance, banks have provided important support for the green transformation of small and micro enterprises and agricultural entities by integrating green and low-carbon goals into inclusive financial services.
For example, WeBank insists on relying on digital technology to continuously explore and implement new models and methods of inclusive finance and service entities, and implements the "five major articles" with practical actions. As of the end of June 2024, WeBank has served more than 400 million individual customers and more than 5 million small and medium-sized enterprise customers who have applied for loans, and has blazed a new path with Chinese characteristics in solving the problem of unbalanced and insufficient financial services.
Differentiated competition, building a multi-level, wide-coverage, orderly financial service system
At present, the development of digital inclusive finance in my country's banking industry is characterized by the coexistence of multiple levels and types of entities, but problems such as the homogeneity of business models and uneven resource distribution need to be urgently addressed. Based on this, the "Report" proposes that different types of banks in my country should give full play to their comparative advantages, focus on customer needs, carry out differentiated inclusive financial services, and build a digital inclusive financial service system with staggered competition and complementary advantages.
Taking large state-owned banks and joint-stock banks as examples, these banks have the unique advantage of large-scale coverage with their strong resources and technical strength. They should increase investment in medium- and long-term credit business, optimize the credit product structure, and push more resources into weak areas. City commercial banks and rural commercial banks, due to their geographical and industry advantages, should be closer to the local economy and customer needs, further improve the coverage rate of county financial services, and help stabilize the regional economy.
The report also highlights the technological leadership of digital banks in the industry. As digital technology-driven banks, digital banks represented by WeBank have explored a new model of commercially sustainable digital inclusive finance, which can not only continuously improve the quality and efficiency of their own services, but also provide support for the digital transformation of small and medium-sized banks and industries.
Looking ahead, the report points out that digital inclusive finance needs to maintain a dynamic balance between innovation and risk prevention and control, while attaching great importance to financial consumer protection and building a solid financial service security line. At the same time, the industry must also adhere to the political and people-oriented nature of financial work, further enhance international competitiveness, and take the path of high-quality development of finance with Chinese characteristics.
