New partnership for fintech sector

CITIC Private Equity Funds Management Co (CITICPE) is to partner with CITIC aiBank Corp, China’s first direct bank, to boost innovative development for traditional industries by using more financial technologies.

The two sides said they would empower each other by utilizing their respective strengths and resources and integrate open banking with industrial ecosystems.

More specifically, the collaboration aims to enhance coordinated development between finance and the real economy in six major industrial fields — science and technology and the Internet, energy, finance and business services, consumption and leisure, medical care and health, and real estate.

The partnership comes at a time when the Chinese government is calling for more financial support to the real economy. Tian Yu, president of CITICPE, said the asset manager would be committed to upgrading traditional industries through providing capital and industrial insight.

Li Rudong, president of aiBank, said open banking is a business model which offers a platform and is open to its partners and it would like to boost win-win development by using its advanced financial technologies.

Under the cooperation, a funds depository system has gone live for aiBank on MaDai Wealth, a CITICPE holding platform which boasts strong fintech capabilities and rich data for serving long-tail customers in consumer finance and wealth management.

The two companies said there would be ample room for them to cooperate in areas such as risk control, customer acquisition and technology development.

Launched in 2017, aiBank, a joint venture by China CITIC Bank Corp Ltd and Internet search giant Baidu Inc, aims to be part of the country’s fast-growing fintech market. It doesn’t have an branch network but offers online banking services.