Shenzhen-based Ping An Bank has formally launched its new direct retail bank, Orange Bank, specially tailored to the needs of young customers.

The new bank (cz.pingan.com) is a digital platform offering financial services, particularly for clients in the younger age groups.

Bao Haijie, president of the finance retail network department at Ping An Bank, said: "From our cute name and its website's interactive design, we would like to create a relaxed and pleasant user experience, and it's totally different from traditional banks."

Positioned as a young people's bank, it targets customers of between 25 and 45 years of age. Since its trial operation in August, the bank has attracted above 200,000 clients - almost 75 percent of whom are in the targeted age group, with about 10 percent between 18 and 25 years old.

Based on a survey of more than 10,000 users and analysis of more than 40 top internet finance platforms in the world, Ping An Bank-designed Orange Bank has three key concepts - easy, fun and profitable - to meet its clients' finance needs and consumption habits.

A customer only needs a mainland ID card and a mobile phone number to open an account in less than one minute on the bank's website. It's unnecessary for users to have a Ping An card because they can use any bank account to forward money to their Orange account.

In addition, what make young users go for Orange Bank is that it's interesting, as it has a string of innovative functions to link the financial tool with a user's personal life.

The service offers a "dream account" - the first of its kind in the industry - to connect young people's dreams with financial products. "It reminds me to keep this dream in mind every day and watch its growth on my account. It also helps me to control my consumption desire in order to realize the dream sooner," said Liu Bin, an Orange Bank user.

So far, Ping An has offered four key products with an expected annual yield rate of between 5.15 and 11.22 percent. It almost has zero threshold - users can buy one particular product from even 0.01 yuan, which is a convenient for young users who are starting their career.

"I've just decided to invest for my family and feel overwhelmed by all kinds of financial products in the market, but Orange Bank's products are simple to understand and operate," said Chen Shi, a user who has just become a father.

To cater to young people's social needs, Ping An has created an Orange Bank club and interactively communicates with its Orange fans on social networks.

At Orange Bank's launch over the weekend, more than 100 fans were invited to the party offering fresh oranges and taxi-booking coupons as gifts for them. Fans called the party "super cool" because of the 3D video shows, DJs and band music on hand.

Internet finance has flourished on the mainland in recent years, presenting both a challenge and an opportunity for traditional banks.

Cai Lifeng, deputy head of Ping An Bank, said the people's changeing mentality is the first priority in dealing with such a challenge.

She said her bank is actively pushing for the transformation of its financial services into Internet-based services. "Orange Bank focuses on user experience. It's a new online retail experiment using Internet thinking to lower traditional banks' operation threshold," she said.

grace@chinadailyhk.com

(HK Edition 11/11/2014 page9)