Fintech: Bank of China to Expand its Financial Tech Regulatory Pilot to Shanghai, Shenzhen, Several Other Chinese Cities

The Bank of China, one of the four largest state-managed commercial banking institutions in the country with over $3 trillion in assets, introduced its very first Fintech-focused regulatory pilot initiative in Beijing in 2019.

The bank now says it will further expand its regulatory pilot to six additional Chinese cities and districts, beginning on April 27, 2020.

The Bank of China will be launching new Fintech pilot programs in several major local cities including Chongqing, Hangzhou, Hebei Xiong’an New District, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Suzhou.

The bank said its main goal is to improve the nation’s financial services so that they can support the rapidly evolving Chinese economy.

The bank said that regulated and innovative Fintech initiatives will aim to protect consumers’ rights. They’ll also assist SMEs with maintaining their operations during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis.

The Bank of China stated:

“We are aiming to amid the pandemic situation and help enterprises to resume work and production.”

Last year, the bank had published “The Fintech Development Plan (2019-2021)” following the Central Economic Work Conference. The plan included pertinent information such as the guidance ideology, basic principles, development goals, missions, and guarantee mechanisms.

The plan noted that China must establish proper regulations for its Fin­tech sector, and also develop a three-year roadmap for adopting financial technology infrastructure.

The bank noted:

“The Plan pro­poses that by 2021, China es­tab­lish and im­prove the ‘four beams and eight pil­lars’ for Chi­na’s Fin­tech de­vel­op­ment, which in­cludes … ac­cel­er­at­ing the draft­ing of ba­sic reg­u­la­tory rules, mon­i­tor­ing analy­sis and as­sess­ment work; ex­plor­ing fin­tech in­no­va­tion reg­u­la­tory mech­a­nisms and com­pre­hen­sive fi­nan­cial sta­tis­tics; strength­en­ing the spe­cial­i­sa­tion, uni­fi­ca­tion and com­pre­hen­sive­ness of fi­nan­cial reg­u­la­tion.”