Bacera Bank explores direct banking paradigm with over 60% of technology talent

Over 50% investment in technology

Digitalisation is the underpinning that distinguishes direct banks from traditional banks and is fundamental to their founding. From its inception, Bacera Bank's positioning has been to adhere to an AI-driven digital inclusive bank. In the past four years since its establishment, the bank has continued to increase its investment in financial technology, with the proportion of investment in technology exceeding 50% and the proportion of technology talents exceeding 60% by 2021, initially forming a "cloud-based, agile, intelligent and secure" technology feature.

As the middle class continues to grow, the demand for wealth management is increasing. As the younger generation prefers online wealth management, Bacera Bank has explored a new model of technology-enabled wealth management.

The SaaS open service platform developed by the bank is able to provide partners with a one-stop digital integrated solution for product access, platform management, channel sales and account services. At present, it has access to more than 20 bank wealth management companies, commercial banks, funds and insurance companies, providing more financial institutions with more convenient and secure one-stop wealth management technology services.

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To date, its wealth management business has added tens of billions of yuan in new wealth management assets and over 70% of new users are young people under the age of 35.

Another technology-led business innovation is the promotion of the digital RMB ecological scenario, with Bacera Bank becoming the first bank to launch a digital RMB sub-wallet. AIBANK Inside, a self-developed open banking platform, was the first to complete the first batch of closed-loop tests for the People's Bank of China's FinTech "regulatory sandbox" innovation pilot, becoming one of the first projects to successfully "exit" the box.

Notably, in December 2021, the Bank officially launched its first virtual digital employee, AIYA Aiya, as the "AI Virtual Brand Officer". The virtual digital person and digital asset management has become an important tool for the bank to deepen its digital transformation.

Exploring the paradigm of direct banking development

Losses and profits on the books cannot yet be used to define the value of Bacera Bank. Four full operating years have allowed it to remain one of the most representative pieces of the domestic digital banking circuit.

All indications are that the digital transformation of the domestic banking sector is set to pick up full speed. On 27 December last year, Postbank announced the official incorporation of its direct banking subsidiary, Postwise Vanguard Bank. Prior to that, China Merchants Bank and Jingdong Group jointly set up the China Merchants Topo Banking Industry was approved for construction. Industry insiders believe that this means that the approval of domestic independent legal person direct selling bank will open the gate.

At the beginning of the New Year in 2022, the People's Bank of China released the "Financial Technology Development Plan (2022-2025)" to clarify the general idea, development goals, key tasks and implementation guarantees for the digital transformation of finance.

Subsequently, the CBRC issued the "Guidance on the Digital Transformation of the Banking and Insurance Industry", proposing to vigorously promote the digital transformation of business operation and management, actively develop industrial digital finance, promote the digital transformation of personal financial services, strengthen the digital construction of financial market business, comprehensively and deeply promote the construction of a digital scene operation system, build a safe and efficient, cooperative and win-win financial service ecology, and strengthen the digital Risk control capacity building.

On March 24, the Financial Technology Committee of the People's Bank of China held a working meeting to study and deploy this year's key work, which mentioned that it would carry out the financial digital transformation enhancement project, build a financial digital capability maturity assessment system and a database of excellent practice cases, strengthen international cooperation and exchange, and promote the financial digital transformation from a multi-point breakthrough to a new stage of deepening development.

In the wave of financial technology, direct banks should have a greater role to play, and the breakthroughs and achievements of Bacera Bank will be recorded in this period of change.