Internet drives banks to transform

Chinese banks are transforming to maintain sustainable growth and retail banking is the most sought-after area of business, according to PwC. 

Over the first half of 2017, most of the Chinese listed banks saw their retail loans grow faster than corporate loans though corporate banking still accounted for a higher proportion of operating income than other banking segments.

Joint-stock commercial banks and city commercial banks recorded a double-digit growth in the retail banking business — primarily driven by mortgages, PricewaterhouseCoopers said in a report.

The embrace of transformation is not only being driven by the banks themselves, but is also a response to the challenges arising from Internet finance. All of the five major state-owned banks have teamed up with technology companies like Ant Financial, JD.com, Baidu and Tencent in various forms of cooperation this year.

“The importance of new technology shifting finance to the Internet has been widely recognized in the industry,” said Jimmy Leung, financial service leader at PwC China. “Financial technology now plays a critical role in risk pricing, resource allocation, data security and risk management.”