On July 28th, the signing ceremony for the Internet Finance Union of Commercial Banks, launched by twelve national joint-stock commercial banks, was held in Beijing. In the ceremony, members of the unionread the letter of appeal, officially signed the Account Interconnection Cooperation Agreement for the Commercial Banks, expressed the wish of “equality,connection,openness and win-win cooperation” and set the target of “providing convenience for the customers and benefiting the customers”. The twelve banks are China Citic Bank, China Merchants Bank, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, China Everbright Bank, Hua Xia Bank, China Minsheng Bank, China Guangfa Bank, Industrial bank, Ping An Bank, Heng Feng Bank, China Zheshang Bank andChina Bohai Bank. The ceremony was held in China Citic Bank, the first co-chair.
The “Internet Finance Union of Commercial Banks”makes the plans in line with the management requirements of regulatory accounts,and creates more secure accounts and provides more innovative financial services for the customers throughsystem interconnection, mutual recognition of accounts and capital interconnection in the union. Customers will benefit more from the lowest pricing strategy through inter-bank channels.
Free of charge for online interbank transfer in the unionIn the ceremony, the union declared that it would provide online interbank transfer for freeto the benefit of clients. Free mutual recognitionis offered among the accounts in the union and the fund transfer will charge the lowest market price, effectively reducingoperating costs of the member banks. In the end, the operating cost saved will be returned to the clients.
Internet Finance Union of Commercial Banks is launched by twelve joint-stock commercial banksthat are active in responding to the Central Bank’s“Notice on ImprovingPersonalBank Account Services and Tightening upAccount Management”and implementing the new regulations. Based on interbank accounts, the union pursues the regulatory policies to the letter, pushes forward classified management of bank accounts and carries outinclusive finance, so as to provide convenience to and benefit the people.
Interconnection among the accounts in the unionWith the rapid development ofthe Internet, some risks, like Internet fraud, information disclosure and payment insecurity, have occurred.The union will strengthen management on real-name registrationthroughsystem interconnection,mutual recognition of accounts and capital interconnection, upgrade personal bank account settlement, and put money laundering under control, so as to improve the capital turnover efficiency, ensure accounts and capital security and offer client-friendly service
The union meets new requirements on accounts management, realizes the mutual recognition of accounts in the member banks, openelectronic accounts for the clients in compliance with theregulation in a more convenient way, and effectively boost client experience and ensure capital security through account-based connection.In the future, the union will take a more open attitude, breakthe barriers, and make it a truth thatresources includinginformation, products, capital and risk control can be shared among the member banks, thus to meet the diversified financial needs of customers. As a result, the customers can have access to a better bank service system.
Of particular note, the member banks express a common wish of “equality, connection, openness and win-win situation” and equality is a top priority, namely, no threshold for new participants, no discrimination clause and no differentiated cooperative plan is set up. It ensures fair competition and themember banks rely on innovation of products and services to achieve sound development; account-based connection helps create a secure and standardized information-sharing platform for the creativity and development of Internet finance of commercial banks; the union also acts as an open and inclusiveplatform, which facilitatesinnovation in service and products through open-up and cooperation, appeals to all commercial banks’ participation and conducts widespread cooperation with all sorts of financial institutions and Internet companies; it aims to put in place “Finance plus Internet”ecosystem, produce more value for the clients, create an all-win situation in the whole industry and among the clients, give impetus to the sustainable development of the banking industry and further strategic transformation of real economy.
Some analysts pointed out that China vigorously advocates the development of inclusive finance and let the parties in the market to share the financial services. The commercial banks conform to the requirements of the market and establish the union that helps their transformation, benefits the peopleand makes a profound impact on the sound development of Internet finance