COVID-19 pandemic shows digitalization key to winning in financial industry

Intelligent marketing involves precisely estimating financing demand from epidemic control, business resumption and individual consumption, by building online wealth and life scenarios. Besides, insurance products, online medical treatment, epidemic map and sanitation supplies can be integrated to facilitate promotion.

For example, a State-owned bank developed its online medical diagnosis platform, which helped increase average daily customers' time on site by 20 percent. An online asset management platform saw its registrations and page views grow about 7 percent after it released epidemic-related products.

Intelligent marketing can also improve clients' operational efficiency by establishing customer profiles, social media presence, mobile apps and telephone-based services, seeking customers from multiple sources, activating dormant clients and initiating targeted marketing.

Intelligent risk control refers to use of big chunks of data from companies and a multi-dimension decision-making model, as well as intelligent tools like blockchain and micro-expression test, to recognize possible fraud in the credit business online.

For example, intelligent tools such as optical character recognition and voice input can streamline loan application procedure and improve clients' experience. When filling the forms and doing video interviews, AI technology can detect micro-expressions, thus lowering risk of fraud. Fintech can also improve efficiency of post-loan management－the system would send messages to clients when they approach repayment date and initiate debt-collection automatically if overdue.

Besides, more financial institutions are partnering with technology companies to develop new products in more quick and flexible ways, to shorten the time for R&D, lower cost and meet the rapidly changing market demand.

Intelligent loan, for example, has become an important method for banks to support small and micro businesses. Some banks mainly target small firms operating in fields like e-commerce, takeouts, logistics and medicine, and enable them to use their financial e-services on WeChat and to obtain loans without having to visit offline spaces. Intelligent loans can also help businesses quickly choose most suitable financial products based on their operations data and technology.

Intelligent operations, including telecommuting, also helped financial institutions resume business and employee training in the aftermath of the outbreak of COVID-19.

Digital transformation is a systemic program that asks for sophisticated planning. Adoption of advanced technologies－AI, blockchain, cloud computing and big data－plays a key role. Blockchain, for instance, forbids falsification of data and allows traceability. So, it can help in identity information management, trust mechanism construction and cash management.

Fintech-related initiatives in financial organizations can start from establishing a fintech development committee, related departments and project-oriented teams, as well as by optimizing systems and rules that encourage inner innovation.

As small and medium-sized banks often face shortage of fintech talent, they can seek cooperation with external players in purchasing core systems and modules from other companies to save on R&D costs, or in conducting business on others' platforms, to decrease losses from trial and error.

Financial institutions can also promote cooperation with the government and industries. Banks can build financing platforms for SMEs based on government data, which can be used to draw company profiles and issue risk ratings. Banks can also develop online supply-chain financing networks to facilitate industries in manufacturing and trade, by linking core companies and upstream and downstream companies.

The pandemic will pass sooner or later but innovation will go on, which explains why financial institutions are underlining digital transformation and contactless finance, and developing them rapidly.

The writer is executive vice-president and secretary-general of the Internet Finance Association of Small and Medium-sized Banks (Shenzhen) and chairman and CEO of OneConnect Financial Technology Co Ltd, the fintech arm of Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China Ltd. The views don't necessarily reflect those of China Daily.