With the acceleration of bank digitization, more and more banks have increased investment in science and technology.
This was incisively and vividly demonstrated in the financial reports of listed banks last year.
Statistics show that the total investment of state-owned banks in science and technology exceeded 100 billion yuan last year. Among them, the investment in science and technology of Industrial And Commercial Bank Of China Limited(601398) , China Construction Bank Corporation(601939) , Agricultural Bank Of China Limited(601288) , Bank Of China Limited(601988) , Postal Savings Bank Of China Co.Ltd(601658) , Bank Of Communications Co.Ltd(601328) reached 25.987 billion yuan, 23.576 billion yuan, 20.532 billion yuan, 18.618 billion yuan, 10.030 billion yuan and 8.75 billion yuan respectively.
At the same time, the investment in science and technology of joint-stock banks is also quite huge. The investment in science and technology of China Merchants Bank Co.Ltd(600036) , China Citic Bank Corporation Limited(601998) , Ping An Bank Co.Ltd(000001) , Industrial Bank Co.Ltd(601166) , China Everbright Bank Company Limited Co.Ltd(601818) reached 13.191 billion yuan, 7.337 billion yuan, 7.383 billion yuan, 6.364 billion yuan and 5.786 billion yuan respectively, with a year-on-year increase of 11.58%, 8.82%, 2.4%, 30.89% and 12.35% respectively.
In addition, urban commercial banks have also increased their investment in science and technology. For example, last year, the investment in Bank Of Qingdao Co.Ltd(002948) science and technology reached 40.47 million yuan.
“Behind this is that in the wave of digitalization of financial formats, banks have included digital intelligence operation in their business strategic planning.” A director of the IT Department of a joint-stock bank told reporters that compared with the past, banks would build technology teams and plan technology investment budgets according to specific business needs, many banks now formulate long-term development plans for financial technology at the top-level design level.
For example, China Construction Bank Corporation(601939) released the financial technology strategic plan (20212025), accelerated the comprehensive cloud transformation, and promoted ” China Construction Bank Corporation(601939) cloud” to become the preferred financial cloud service brand for users.
Bank Of China Limited(601988) then set up a financial digitization committee to coordinate and promote the group’s digital development, financial technology, data governance, information technology risk management system construction and other work.
China Zheshang Bank Co.Ltd(601916) implement the China Zheshang Bank Co.Ltd(601916) digital transformation plan, which will explore the deep integration of cutting-edge technologies such as blockchain, Internet of things and big data with banking business, embed financial technology into practical and efficient enterprise financial services, and focus on solving the core needs of enterprises to shape market competitive advantage.
Correspondingly, last year, banks expanded the number of science and technology teams and arranged more science and technology R & D personnel to the front line of business.
\u3000\u3000 “At present, the bank’s digitization process is forming three major trends: first, the scientific and technological R & D personnel are no longer in the background, but actively go deep into the business front line, timely respond to various needs of customers and quickly formulate personalized solutions through scientific and technological means; second, continue to promote the construction of technology middle platform and create shared, agile and collaborative one-stop basic technical capabilities; third, plan long-term scientific and technological investment at the top-level design level to support scientific and technological innovation Be able to innovate and develop various businesses. ” A person from the product innovation Department of state-owned banks pointed out to reporters.
“More importantly, many banks hope to break the traditional operation thinking mode and shape a new business model suitable for the digital era through science and technology.” He told reporters that it is difficult to do this. First of all, the banking business is huge and the organizational structure is complex. How to build an agile organizational structure and maximize the efficiency of digital intelligence operation is a big test; Secondly, banks need to reserve a large amount of funds, tackle new technologies and continuously improve the financial technology and technology reserves, so as to remain invincible in the process of banking format reform in the digital age.
behind the “counter trend” growth of scientific researchers
A unique feature of the banking industry in recent years is that the number of offline outlets is decreasing, but the number of scientific research teams is increasing.
According to the statistics of datayes, by the end of 2021, China Merchants Bank Co.Ltd(600036) R & D personnel had reached 10043, a year-on-year increase of 13.07% Ping An Bank Co.Ltd(000001) scientific and technological personnel (including outsourcing) exceeded 9000, with a year-on-year increase of 5.88% Bank Of Communications Co.Ltd(601328) financial science and technology personnel reached 4539, with a year-on-year increase of 14.16% China Citic Bank Corporation Limited(601998) scientific and technological personnel (excluding subsidiaries) reached 4286, with a year-on-year increase of 2.29%
The operation director of the IT Department of the above-mentioned joint-stock banks told reporters that many banks did not arrange the new technology R & D personnel in the IT technology and other middle and back-end departments, but directly let them work with the front-line personnel of the business, quickly solve various challenges encountered in the operation process of various businesses through scientific and technological means, and continuously improve the response speed and processing efficiency of customer needs.
“This has greatly improved the operational efficiency of many of our businesses.” He stressed to reporters.
By combing the financial reports of several listed banks, the reporter found that with the empowerment of science and technology, the pace of business innovation of many banks has been significantly accelerated.
Last year, Ping An Bank Co.Ltd(000001) went deep into the supply chain scene and ecology, constantly relied on science and technology to innovate the business model, and promoted the “safe and good chain” of the supply chain financial platform, with an annual financing amount of 51.976 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 62.8%.
Bank Of Communications Co.Ltd(601328) will deepen the empowerment of science and technology, launch the “salary and tax housekeeper” digital salary scenario solution, and help the digital transformation of small and medium-sized enterprises.
Industrial And Commercial Bank Of China Limited(601398) enable the construction of “digital ICBC” with science and technology, promote non-contact service innovation, and enable customers to handle business “anytime, anywhere” through the integration and optimization of multiple service scenarios such as business cloud handling, emergency screen-to-screen, all-weather communication, service integration and open intelligent ecology.
In the view of many bankers, in order to fully enable the bank’s businesses to improve business efficiency through science and technology, in addition to introducing more R & D personnel to “cooperate” in the front-line business departments, it also needs to pass a lot of professional training to let all front-line employees understand the latest development achievements of financial science and technology and be familiar with how to use science and technology to improve business efficiency.
At present, a number of banks have quietly started targeted employee training planning. For example, last year Ping An Bank Co.Ltd(000001) organized “fintech certification learning for all employees”, covering cutting-edge technologies and application scenarios of financial technology such as big data, blockchain, 5g and Internet of things, which effectively improved the scientific and technological awareness and scientific and technological use ability of all employees Industrial Bank Co.Ltd(601166) then through the construction of “5 + n” training system, update the digital thinking, concepts and skills of employees, promote everyone to learn, understand and master science and technology, and expand the compound talent team of “BA (Business Analyst) + SA (System Analyst)”.
The operation director of the IT Department of the joint-stock bank bluntly told reporters that as more and more banks formulate science and technology enabled business development plans at the top-level design level, the demand of banks for science and technology R & D personnel will continue to increase in the future. Especially in the trend of Internet based business methods and scenario based financial services, more and more “technology banks” will appear, that is, technology R & D personnel account for 30% – 40% of bank personnel. A large number of standardized banking services are completely solved through various intelligent technologies, and manual personnel are mainly responsible for some customized, highly specialized and highly private financial services.
technology platform construction speed up
By combing the financial reports of many banks in 2021, the reporter also found that the pace of large banks to build a technological platform was significantly accelerated last year.
China Citic Bank Corporation Limited(601998) said that a major breakthrough was made in the construction of technology platform, and the first batch of public business capacity services were launched, breaking the traditional “shaft” system construction mode.
China Construction Bank Corporation(601939) will continue to promote the construction of technology center and build a one-stop basic technical capability of sharing, agility and coordination of the group.
BOC formulated the financial technology plan of Bank Of China Limited(601988) “the 14th five year plan”, which includes establishing the concept of enterprise level middle platform development and improving the sharing and reuse ability of the whole group. At present, Bank Of China Limited(601988) has set up a middle platform for business, data, technology and operation.
“At present, large state-owned banks and some joint-stock banks are rapidly building a technology center.” A person in charge of the IT Department of a city commercial bank spoke frankly to reporters. After all, it is very difficult to build a technology center. First, banks need to invest a lot of capital and resources to build a perfect underlying technology system; Secondly, banks should integrate all business departments, build a unified data interface, get through the data information of all departments, and gather all kinds of data as an important cornerstone to draw a complete picture of users and promote business innovation; Third, the bank has to build a matching organizational structure, promote each business department to achieve efficient business collaboration through technology, and quickly respond to customers’ personalized, customized, highly complex and professional financial service needs.
“More importantly, while enabling all business departments to enhance collaborative operations, the technology center should also ensure that all business operations comply with regulatory regulations.” He pointed out. Especially in data processing, banks must spend a lot of money on technology research and development, and explore and establish an information security protection mechanism for the exchange and integration of internal data, external public data and industry data through cutting-edge technologies such as privacy computing.
He told reporters that although they did not have enough resources and financial resources to build a technology center, the leaders of the head office required to pave the way for building a technology center in the future when strengthening investment in science and technology. At present, while enabling the coordinated development of retail, corporate, asset management, investment banking and cross-border business with the help of financial technology, they build a new technical structure, enhance the efficiency of internal communication and data sharing, and improve the ability of collaborative operation.
In the view of many people from urban commercial banks, even if small and medium-sized banks may not build a technology center, they also need to build a new technology support path for building a “light bank” or “digital intelligence bank”. Because of the competition of banks in the digital era, they compete for the response speed of customer needs and the ability to solve quickly. However, the construction and improvement of this ability are inseparable from the support of scientific and technological empowerment and corresponding organizational structure reform.
