Security paramount in fintech development

As Chinese banks accelerate their pace of going digital by embracing financial technology, they should also be cautious of data security, talent, investment sustainability and other problems, officials and scholars said.

The Chinese banking industry has in recent years made great efforts on pushing forward digitalization to enhance its technological capability, but some problems are emerging in the process, for example, loopholes in data security, a lack of professional talent, underdeveloped operating philosophies and management systems and loose risk management capacity, said Liu Feng, secretary-general of the China Banking Association.

"These problems should be properly addressed as the industry goes deeper into the digital field," he said at the fifth China Digital Banking Forum held in Shenzhen on Thursday. The event was co-organized by the Internet Finance Association of Small and Medium-sized Banks and China Banking journal.

"To be specific, banks should stick to the bottom line to prevent new types of financial risks. They should also attach high importance to data management to give full play to the use of data. An inter-disciplinary talent pool should also be built up."

Liu's view was echoed by Wang Hongzhang, former chairman of China Construction Bank and head of the Northeast Asia Economic Research Institute at the Dongbei University of Finance and Economics.

"While major banks take an open and cooperative attitude towards fintech, they should also be cautious about the protection of data security, which should be key in their digital transformation," he said.

He also called on banks to make sustainable investment in fintech. "Heavy investment in the initial stage is possible, but it could add pressure on their operations given the high cost incurred. Therefore, banks should make careful assessments and judgements in their digitalization process to strike a balance between costs and benefits," Wang said.

Ba Shusong, executive director of the HSBC Financial Research Institute at Peking University, said fintech enterprises should put risk management first when carrying out financial business. How big a role fintech companies could play in promoting financial business depends on their risk management capacity, he said.

Ba also urged Chinese regulators to accelerate innovation to keep up with the development of the emerging industry and provide sufficient space for fintech players to grow.

"Regulators need to make better use of technological tools to enhance their regulatory capacity and that could be done from three aspects -- innovating the way of data collection and sharing, setting up specific departments for fintech regulation and strengthening cooperation with fintech players," he said.