RBA Lands in China
Our CEO Evelyn Hunter recently had the
privilege of addressing an audience of
600 retail bankers from 200 commercial
banks at a conference in Hangzhou
China, themed Retail Banking Channel
Innovation – and hosted by RBA’s
Partner in China, Consulting Ltd. This
partnership will see RBA jointly deliver
the Certified Retail Banker qualification
to retail bankers in China in at least
200 city commercial banks. Consulting
provides retail banking training services
to retail banks across all 34 provinces
in China, serving 50,000 retail banking
employees every year and an amazing
1 million retail banking employees over
the last 15 years.
The conference highlighted the fact
that while London and Silicon Valley
position themselves as FinTech hubs,
China has leapfrogged to become a
centre of global FinTech innovation and
adoption – across multiple hubs such
www.retailbanking-academy.org
as Hangzhou, which is home to the
Alibaba Group and its related company
Ant Financial Services Group. As banks
and financial services institutions in
the West look at ways to incrementally
innovate, China’s technology leaders
are revolutionising many aspects of
financial services.
Underpinning
China’s
FinTech
dominance are leading domestic
technology companies such as Alibaba,
which are setting out to own the entire
customer journeys and consumption
ecosystems. ‘Platform effects’ enable
them to capture data and use it to offer
ever more services with significantly
better and more comprehensive
customer experiences than traditional
financial services players. Their
collaborative relationships with Chinese
corporates and start-ups is helping to
fuel this rapid innovation and expansion.
If FinTech in the West has reached a
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tipping point, China has clearly moved
beyond the point of disruption.
While there are lessons to be learned
from the rise of FinTech in China –
including from the response of
regulators and incumbents – not all
products and services can be replicated
in the West. From an international
perspective, the key question is
whether these powerful domestic
Chinese FinTech players will be able to
replicate internationally their success in
a uniquely protected domestic market.
Will we see a convergence of closed
loop networks with mobile apps and
national switches via interoperability –
or international rivalries?
One thing is sure – exciting times
lie ahead and the future is bright for
internationally qualified Certified Retail
Bankers.