Nation's fintech companies expand their reach

Earlier stage

Ngai, from McKinsey, said India is seeing a significant amount of fintech investment from China. Although India is at an earlier stage of fintech development, it "exhibits similar characteristics" to those in China, he added.

"We believe that given the large market opportunity, Indian fintech companies will continue to proliferate, more unicorns (private startup companies valued at more than $1 billion) will emerge, several companies may even become regional leaders, and Chinese fintech companies will continue to play an important role in shaping market development," Ngai said.

Chinese fintech companies are expanding beyond Asia. In February, Alipay partnered with pan-African bank Ecobank to provide cross-border remittance services, according to the technology media site 36Kr.

This trend is also driven by local demand. The Nielsen report said that 66 percent of local merchants in the United Kingdom, South Korea and Singapore hope to carry out more digital store operations through Chinese mobile payment services.

Ngai, noting that Asian countries share a number of advantages for fintech development, said a wave of opportunities would sweep across the continent in the coming years, including the licensing of virtual banks, which has already taken place in China, Singapore, South Korea and Malaysia.

According to a McKinsey report, Asia has been the world's largest regional banking market for a decade, accounting for 37 percent of global banking profit pools in 2018.

As incomes continue to rise and the middle-class population expands to include two-thirds of Asian households, personal financial assets in the region will reach $69 trillion by 2025, representing about 75 percent of the global total, the report said.

Ngai said, "With fintech developing rapidly across Asia, collaboration in innovation will become more and more important to building up scalable and sustainable fintech businesses."

Viewing collaboration as a key focus for WeBank, which introduced an open banking strategy in March last year, the company spokesman said this strategy will help it empower global partners with open-source and innovative technologies, enabling the building of collaborative business.

"We are proactively sharing our experience and practice of advanced fintech technologies, and exploring fintech collaboration with overseas partners," the spokesman said.

Garcia Herrero, from Natixis, noting that most outward investment by Chinese fintech companies concentrates on e-payments and e-commerce, said fintech investment regarding consumers and credit for small and medium-sized enterprises is also on the rise.

While other regions will improve in various areas of the sector, she said China is expected to remain the leader in e-commerce and mobile payments, shaping the regional fintech landscape with outward investment.