CMB releases new and improved app

The latest version of China Merchants Bank's app was just released, in which intelligent tools were applied to improve its products, services and risk control as part of the bank's effort to develop financial technology.

The app aims to provide more tailored services by analyzing the real demands of different customers based on cloud computing, the bank said.

Through processing all information about the market and funds, it can give customized advice on wealth management for ordinary customers, said Jiang Chaoyang, general manager of the bank's retail internet banking department.

It can also remind users to deal with unsettled individual financial issues, including transferring accounts and repayment, as well as pushing news or financial products they may have interest in, he said.

According to a report by McKinsey & Company, the number of Chinese internet finance users has reached about 500 million in 2016, and the age of financial technology, or fintech, is coming, with more participants entering the sector.

In this sense, the Chinese banking industry has been evolving from electronic, internet and mobile banks to totally digitalized ones, it said.

Tian Huiyu, president of China Merchants Bank, said in the bank's 2016 annual report it would spare no effort to promote financial technology with emphasis on the internet, data and intelligence.

It planned to pour 1 percent of its annual pretax profit into development of fintech since 2017. If not enough, the funds may be derived from 1 percent of its revenue, which amounts to about 2 billion yuan ($300 million) based on revenue last year, according to bank chairman Li Jianhong.

However challenges remained when internet giants, including Baidu Inc, Alibaba Group and Tencent showed ambition in the fintech sector, industrial insiders said.

Financial products of Alibaba, for instance, have almost covered all business in the investment and wealth management fields, including depositing and withdrawing money, individual credit recording, loans and insurance services.

Jiang said since competition with internet enterprises is inevitable, traditional banks should make the most of their strengths, which are the complete offline network of asset management and risk control.

Now about 53 million customers have downloaded the bank's app, and more than 5.3 million of those have become daily active users by October, according to the bank.