Time: July 2015 Source: Financial Computerizing Journal
China saw internet finance spring up quickly in 2013. Internet enterprises led by BAT struck a quick blow to the conventional finance industry, growing fast depending on their advantages such as low threshold, convenient operation, rich application scenarios and diversified social communication approaches. In addition, they also penetrated into many conventional business areas of commercial banks such as wealth management, credit and payment. In confrontation with the internet finance in the momentum of fast growth, how can commercial banks “dance with wolves”? In exploring the open internet finance platform “Money Manager”, Industrial Bank (IB) opens a unique route for conventional finance to embrace internet.
Taking initiative to embrace internet with a view to achieving innovation in and transformation of conventional finance
Now, China’s economic development enters the “New Normal”. The constantly deepening reform in the economic and financial systems brings unparalleled impacts and challenges to the conventional banking industry. First, under the macroeconomic environment characterized by “superimposition of three periods”, namely the transition period in respect of the growth rate, the throes period for structural adjustment, and the digestion period for early-stage stimulus policies, the pressure of downward economy keep increasing, but the new economic period is still under incubation. Facing great test in asset quality and scale and constant growth of profits, commercial banks need to explore new business and profit growth points so as to achieve “stable growth”. Second, the acceleration of market-oriented interest rates reduces the loan/deposit interest spread of commercial banks at a fast rate, so it is hard to continue the conventional profiting model based on interest spread. Third, funds and customers are lost under the influence of flourishing capital market, steady increase in the proportion of direct financing and constantly deepening financial disintermediation, thus banks face actual pressure of transformation. Fourth, the cross-sector and cross-industry competition from internet companies and a great number of enterprises engaging in securities, trust, insurance and fund further aggravates the diversion of customers and businesses of commercial banks. All these make the banking industry realize that they must make active innovation and adjust their business models to attract new customer groups and new business opportunities with internet tools.
IB realized at an early time that it should not only embrace the tide of internet finance actively, but achieve its own transformation and development by dint of the advantages of internet. For this reason, IB took fast actions and finished the system building and business preparation within over half a year. It launched the internet finance brand “Money Manager” officially on December 11, 2013. Over more than a year’s development, the platform has attracted around 1 million terminal customers, and the wealth management products sold via the platform in 2014 totaled over RMB 540 billion. It has grown into an open platform integrating a variety of wealth management services covering banking wealth management, trust, fund, precious metal, bank-securities transfer, balance-based wealth management, and products of financial asset exchanges. In March 2014, IB and AEGON-INDUSTRIAL Fund Management Co., Ltd. jointly launched the leading balance-based wealth management product “Manager’s Wallet”, which has now made its presence in the top 10 monetary funds in China, showcasing powerful development momentum and promising market prospect.
Originating from the bank-bank platform, “Money Manager” is endowed with internet gene
Originating from the “bank-bank platform”, the institutional banking cooperation brand of IB, “Money Manager” is released to internet terminal customers as a product improved and upgraded on the basis of the wealth management portal of “bank-bank platform”. This is of great difference compared with other banks where the business of internet finance is pushed forward by the electronic banking department or retail banking department. In fact, the bank-bank platform has always carried authentic internet gene in the course of development over the past 10 years from its birth, becoming a preferred choice for IB to take the lead to set foot in internet finance.
First, the agency payment and settlement and basic customer group formed by the bank-bank platform over years of development build a necessary payment and user foundation for IB to extend its reach to internet finance.
In the development of institutional banking cooperation, IB discovered the naturally complementary advantages between itself and small- and medium-sized banks in the aspects of region and banking outlet, and both can act as agencies for each other based on networked cooperation. In this way, it brought forward the development conception of bank-bank cooperation characterized by “sharing resources and achieving win-win results on a common platform constructed jointly” and put into practice the concept by building the bank-bank platform. With the platform, IB has not only broke through its restrictions of only having banking outlets in cities of the first and second tiers and reached far to cities of the third and fourth tiers as well as the broad rural market, but also shared its own resources in the central areas with cooperative banks so that they would not be restricted by regions and could provide more customers with convenient agency payment and settlement across China. The network of agency payment and settlement formed over years is the solid foundation for IB to develop internet finance and offers a vehicle of agency payment for loading various internet financial products.
When all others were discussing the internet thinking and spirit, since its birth the bank-bank platform of IB has carried the values of internet, namely “collaboration, sharing, equality and mutual benefit”, and boasted strong internet gene from the design concept and technological foundation to operation model. Thus, IB could take the lead to enter the area of internet finance based on the bank-bank platform, and popularize in a better way the institutional banking cooperation idea of the bank-bank platform, namely “sharing resources and achieving win-win results on a common platform constructed jointly”, by means of internet.
Second, with years of partnership with a great number of financial institutions, IB has cultivated high sensitivity and fast response to the market, which are of great help for the bank to make transformation and follow up in a timely manner upon the flourishing of internet finance.
The business of financial market of IB is the area where market-oriented interest rates were applied at the earliest time. The bank has always conducted business management and operation adhering to market-oriented thinking, faced market changes in the attitude of constant innovation, and sought a greater banking cooperation in the philosophy of remaining open and sharing. With these experiences accumulated and idea of ongoing reform, it has obtained resources and development opportunities in the competition, responding to various changes at a fast speed. Upon the budding of internet finance in 2013, IB realized that it would see rocketing growth. Moreover, the bank has embraced internet finance actively based on the bank-bank platform, pushing forward the development of internet finance at a fast rate. Over more than half a year, it made system restructuring and framework upgrading in accordance with the requirements of “centering on user experience”, and “Money Manager” was released to the market in an all-round manner at the end of that year.
Third, IB is capable of integrating diversified resources such as products, funds, technologies and financial qualifications and boasts a sturdy risk management system, offering product support, technological backing and risk control guarantee for developing internet finance.
With complete business qualifications related to the financial market, IB is capable of integrating, operating and managing diversified resources in a board scope covering product design, assets custody, assets management, funds trading and institutional banking cooperation, and has risk management embedded to improve the specialization and approval efficiency for the control of business risks in the financial market. Meanwhile, IB has, through designing the organizational structure, organized an independent and strong team providing technological and business-related support, which is devoted to system building and product development for the bank-bank platform and “Money Manager” and offering powerful technical and business-related support. The well-knitted setup of organizational structure in the front, middle and back stages enables the bank-bank platform team to cover most procedures for offering internet finance related services effectively, thus providing a comparatively efficient operation mechanism and relaxed operation environment for “Money Manager”.
Fourth, IB has always followed the technological progress closely and kept improving relevant technologies on the heels of latest internet advancements. The bank has built a new internet platform, which is secure, efficient, fast and customer-centered, by introducing up-to-date internet technologies constantly.
Taking the bank-bank platform as a breakthrough point, IB has been making great efforts in extending internet financial channels besides the conventional businesses. In the furious product competition in the new age, the bank has taken the lead to group customers based on big data analysis and exerted itself to improving customer experience in product development. Its “customer-centered” internet thinking can be seen not only in financial products, but also application design and development. It has introduced important partners as the basis for the big data analysis platform to conduct in-depth analysis over all procedures and product appetites of users, thus building a solid foundation for the development of internet products in the future. Moreover, IB has also taken the cooperative institutions in vast number as the acting point to extend and update the coverage of user security, investment and financing via channels including UnionPay, third-party payment and counters of cooperative banks, etc. In this way, users can enjoy the superior service offered by the bank-bank platform of IB both online and offline. By way of third-party security scanning on a regular basis, developing and improving applications at a fast rate, and introducing quality products constantly, the bank has met the complicated demands of users in the age of internet both in terms of quality and quantity, always securing itself at a front position in the development of internet finance.
Building a multi-win financial ecological system with “internet+ inclusive finance”
Born in the age of “internet+”, “Money Manager” boasts advantages of a conventional commercial bank in risk control of financial products and capability of organizing the trading of funds and assets. Moreover, it can learn the value concept of internet, namely co-existence, win-win and common development, in an open attitude, and meet human-centered needs to the largest extent, thus building an open and comprehensive wealth management platform for partners and users which shares resources in a win-win attitude.
For financial institutions, “Money Manager” integrates both upstream and downstream resources of the industrial chain of financial investment, and all of them can have open, equal and free cooperation on the platform. Besides selling the wealth products of IB, “Money Manager” also introduces wealth products of various financial institutions such as joint-stock banks, urban commercial banks, rural financial institutions, and trust and fund companies, and products of financial assets exchanges. In the future, it will also continue intensifying its efforts to introduce products from the outside, such as innovative fund products (wealth management bond fund and securitized trust fund), management products of old-age care guarantee, products of insurance companies, and management plans of securities companies, so as to further enrich the product families of the platform and provide more financial institutions with the sales platform and channel service.
For customers, “Money Manager” houses a great number of banks and most of bank account holders across China. As long as a customer holds a bank account, the platform can meet his or her investment and wealth management needs in one stop, requiring no change to service relationship between him or her and the related bank. While enabling customers to increase their wealth value, “Money Manager” also keeps updating and simplifying the product flow and service experience design with a view to improving the user experience and meeting the needs of customers constantly.
For the cities of the third and fourth tiers and the vast rural areas with increasing wealth management needs, “Money Manager”, as an open platform sharing resources, fully showcases the practice of inclusive finance by IB. Owing to the restrictions of business qualifications and assets management capabilities, many small- and medium-sized banks have a late start in the business of wealth management. As a result, with limited product categories, they cannot meet the wealth management needs of local residents in an effective way. By assembling outstanding products of various financial institutions and integrating the sales networks of cooperative banks, “Money Manager” successfully conveys rich financial products and services from cities of the first and second tiers to cities of the third and fourth tiers and the vast rural areas. In this way, it breaks through the physical regional restrictions via internet, significantly shortens the gap in financial services between urban and rural areas, and drives the equalization of financial services between urban and rural areas. In addition, IB also provides the small- and medium-sized banks in cooperation with “Money Manager” with all-round and well-organized personnel training and multi-level business cooperation covering assets management, capital trading, investment custody, etc., with a view to helping small- and medium-sized banks and rural financial institutions to enrich their product families, elevate the levels of their financial services, and playing a more active role in supporting the development of local real economy.
Striding toward an open and comprehensive wealth management platform from “Money Manager”
As an attempt of innovation made by a conventional bank in the area of internet finance, “Money Manager” is establishing an operation system more suitable for the development of internet finance and a tolerant and efficient innovation mechanism with the support of flexible and powerful measures for incentive assessment and marketing, so as to improve and integrate resources in different business areas such as talent, product, technology, information, capital and assets. In this way, it is exploring a path for the development of internet finance which can combine the advantages of the bank-bank platform and features of internet in an effective way.
In the future, IB will, in building the integrated internet wealth management platform, make use of the service platform for agency payment and settlement and the cloud computing platform of the core business system for small- and medium-sized banks to push forward the innovation in and development of “Money Manager” as an internet financial platform. “Money Manager” will keep intensifying efforts in developing innovative products and enriching the diversified product families, build an online assets circulation platform, and establish a market maker system to increase the liquidity and flexibility of products substantially. Relying on “Manager’s Wallet”, a core account of cash management with high liquidity, the bank will develop online payment of “Money Manager” vigorously, increase life scenario applications, extend the functional channels for payment, and improve service functions so as to build an open and comprehensive wealth management platform where financial institutions, enterprises and residents can enjoy the feast of internet finance together.
Adhering to the value concept of the bank-bank platform, namely “sharing resources and achieving win-win results on a common platform constructed jointly”, “Money Manager” will, by dint of internet free of restrictions in time and space, transmit quality products and services to the cities of the third and fourth tiers and rural areas, further serve small- and medium-sized financial institutions with advanced financial services and technologies, and offer inclusive financial services to more customer groups in a greater number of urban and rural areas in a better way.