Banks strike back at online financial startups

Skeptics question whether simply expanding Internet services is an adequate response to the new offerings of financial services from leading e-commerce companies, reports Jiang Xueqing

At the end of 2013 and the beginning of this year, many commercial banks in China increased the rate of return on their financial products. As a long-term client of several banks, Wu Jing was surprised to find that Bank of Beijing Co Ltd provided a one-year wealth management product with an annualized yield of 6.3 percent, about 2 percentage points higher than the average rate of return on such products three months ago.

The 62-year-old retired editor invested 500,000 yuan ($82,500) in the Bank of Beijing's financial product, which sold out immediately.