FinVolution Group, a China-based fintech that connects underserved individual borrows with financial institutions, announced on Wednesday it has made an equity investment in Fujian Haixia Bank (FHB). The company reported it has subscribed for 281 million of newly issued shares of the bank, which notably accounted for 4.99% of the bank’s total issued shares at the transactions closing.
According to FinVolution, Fujian Haixia Bank has a network of 73 branches and sub-branches across Fujian province and four branch outlets in Zhejiang province. The bank offers a wide spectrum of financial services to individuals, SMEs, corporates and institutions across these regions. As of December 31, 2018, the bank had total assets of approximately RMB153.1 billion, total customer deposits of RMB76.9 billion, and outstanding customer loans of RMB65.7 billion.
Speaking about the investment, Feng Zhang Co-CEO of FinVolution Group
“We are excited about the synergies created through our strategic investment and partnership with FHB. Our businesses are highly complementary, and we look forward to the launch of new growth engines while strengthening our ability to service financial institutions. Additionally, this investment and partnership present the opportunity for us to explore broad areas of cooperation that will help both FinVolution and FHB in business expansion, enhancing operating efficiencies, and improving risk management.”
Zhang went on to add:
“Through leveraging our technologies-as-a-service, we believe this long-term partnership with FHB will solidify FinVolution’s leading position in the industry and accelerate our cooperation with commercial banks and other financial institutions.”
Founded in 2007, FinVolution claims to be a pioneer in China’s online consumer finance industry and offers services for credit risk assessment, fraud detection, big data and artificial intelligence. The company’s platform features automated loan transaction processes. As of September 30, 2019, FinVolution has attracted more than 102 million cumulative registered users.