Innovation in the “Technology Flow” evaluation system shifts the focus from “physical assets to intellectual property, from capital to knowledge;” Applications of E-CNY are expanding, including shopping, bill payments, and subway rides; IB is embedding financial services into various consumer and industrial internet platforms, building an open and mutually beneficial digital financial ecosystem; Through satellite remote sensing, IB creates accurate crop profiles, precisely addressing the funding needs of tea enterprises; Relying on the biological asset monitoring system, sows are not only “digitized” but can also be used as live collateral for loans. All these scenarios represent the dynamic innovation of digital IB, embodying the ubiquitous and inclusive digital financial services of the new era.
Digital Renaissance in Southeast China, IB sets sail in the Digital Era. In 2000, Xi Jinping, then Governor of Fujian Province, envisioned seizing the commanding heights of information technology development. He made a significant decision to build “Digital Fujian,” laying the foundation for the digital blueprint of China. Today, digitization serves as a crucial engine for advancing modernization in the Chinese style. The recent Central Financial Work Conference specifically called for excellence in “Five Major Areas”, including digital finance, heralding new opportunities for development in this sector.
Digital Fujian has nurtured the growth of Digital IB. Over 20 years ago, as one of the “node units,” Industrial Bank leveraged the “Digital Fujian” initiative to plan and build its internal information website. Inspired by Xi Jinping’s vision of “a click of the mouse to see data from across the province,” IB developed its first management information system - the President’s Inquiry System, embedding a technological DNA in the bank’s development and establishing an early strategy of “Technology-driven Banking” in the industry.
Digital IB is rooted in Digital China. Following the development of Digital Fujian and Digital China, Industrial Bank has always adhered to its fundamental strategy of “Technology-driven Banking” for over 20 years. By standing at the forefront of the times and embracing the tide of digital development, IB has significantly accelerated its digital transformation. It has empowered industrial digitization and digital industrialization, writing a “major chapter” in digital finance and injecting new vitality into advancing modernization in the Chinese style through digitization.
Solving the Equation of High-Quality Development
From the southeast coast to the northwest frontier, from industrial production lines to everyday life, digitization is permeating every aspect of living like water and electricity. It is transforming all facets of production, injecting new energy into various industries and becoming a new engine for high-quality economic and social development.
In the digital era, digital transformation is not a choice but a necessity for all financial institutions. While “Digital Fujian” infused IB with the genes of technological innovation, “Digital China” has opened a second curve of development for the bank. In recent years, IB has treated digital transformation as a matter of existential importance, striving to shift paradigms, promote reform, increase investment, strengthen talent, solidify foundations, build platforms, develop scenarios, and expand ecosystems. Committed to “building capabilities that connect everything and creating the best bank for ecosystem empowerment,” IB has been navigating the complex “equations” of high-quality development, exploring new models and ecosystems in digital financial services.
Over its 35-year journey, IB has grown its technology talent pool to nearly 7,000 professionals, with an annual investment exceeding 8 billion yuan. The bank has evolved from establishing an early computer department to forming an organizational structure comprising a Digital Transformation Committee, Technology Management Department, Data Management Department, Digital Operations Department, Security Department, FinTech Research Institute, and IB Fintech Company, known as “one Committee, four Departments, one Institute and one Company”. Transitioning from one of China’s largest commercial bank information system providers to becoming the 10th designated operator for E-CNY; IB has shifted from “leading in online banking” to “flourishing in digital ecosystems”. It has rejuvenated and launched “five major online platforms” - IB Inclusive Finance, IB Butler, IB Life, Money Manager, and IB Platform for Integrated Banking - integrating financial services into various production and life scenarios. This vivid picture of “Digital IB” is gradually unfolding.
Utilizing digital twin technology to mirror real and virtual server rooms and connect their data, IB achieves real-time intelligent monitoring of server operations, ultimately realizing efficient “unmanned operation” effects.
At the heart of its digital transformation, IB focuses on safeguarding financial security and advancing E-CNY applications. The bank operates an intelligent anti-fraud platform, central to its financial security strategy. Utilizing a leading “batch-stream integrated” framework and “stream cube” engine, the platform can process up to thirty thousand transactions per second. By the end of the third quarter of this year, it successfully intercepted fraudulent transactions involving 440 million yuan, firmly protecting the public’s financial interests.
As the 10th designated operator for E-CNY, IB established the E-CNY Innovation Lab, launching the first E-CNY wallet for Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan residents and initiating the first E-CNY personal pension fund deposit. With over three million personal E-CNY wallets opened and servicing over 100 tier-2.5 cooperative banks, IB continually expands E-CNY application scenarios, making digital financial services more accessible and beneficial to the masses.
These advancements are underpinned by IB’s solid digital foundation. Digital transformation is integral to the bank’s overall strategic plan, adhering to an “enterprise-level, standardized” methodology. IB has reshaped its business and enterprise architecture, with major projects in marketing, wealth management, investment banking, risk control, and operations nearing completion; Aligning with the “East-Data-West-Computing” strategy, the bank is implementing computing power plans in Shanghai, Fuzhou, and Guizhou, expanding its computing capacity and accelerating “cloud-based” infrastructure transformation; Having initially established 21,000 enterprise-level data dictionary standards and launching the large-scale model product ChatCIB, IB leverages technology to drive transformation and empower high-quality economic and social development.
Injecting “Digital Power” into the Modern Industrial System
IB supports the growth of digital economy innovators like Newland and Zongmu Technology into “unicorns” and “little giants”; Leveraging industrial internet platforms like Chaintor and Zhongxie Lian, the bank promotes the digital upgrade of traditional industries, injecting digital momentum into the construction of a modern industrial system.
As a driving force in building a modern economic system, the digital industrialization and industrial digitalization serve as pivotal engines for propelling China’s high-quality economic development. IB proactively rides the wave of the digital economy. In its commitment to deep integration and service in building “Digital China,” IB is accelerating its digital transformation. The bank is innovating to create a financial services system that aligns with the digital economy, fostering the deep integration of digital and real economies. This approach is designed to inject new vitality into the pursuit of high-quality development.
To cater to digital economy enterprises characterized by technology intensity, light assets, and lack of traditional collateral, IB has innovatively launched the “Technology Flow” credit evaluation system. Unlike the traditional “Cash Flow” system based on corporate financial conditions, the “Technology Flow” system assesses enterprises across 15 dimensions, including the number and quality of intellectual property rights, density of invention patents, strength of research teams, technological qualifications, and scientific innovation awards. It views data as the “fourth statement” of a business, transforming technological “soft power” into tangible financing capability. As of September 2023, using the “Technology Flow” model, IB has approved financing requests exceeding 2 trillion yuan, with nearly 600 billion yuan in various financing types disbursed.
In the context of the digital economy, data is the decisive element. How to stimulate the core productive element of data and unlock its greater value? IB has strategically collaborated with the Fujian Provincial Big Data Group. The bank plans to provide intended financing of not less than 30 billion yuan during the “14th Five-Year Plan” period through comprehensive financial services to the group, its subsidiaries, and upstream and downstream customers. Additionally, IB has assisted in building and operating the “Fujian Financial Service Cloud Platform” platform and innovatively launched the “IB Inclusive Finance” platform. Using big data for precise corporate profiling, aims to reduce administrative burdens for enterprises. The “Fujian Financial Service Cloud Platform” platform has attracted over 130 financial institutions, with 340,000 registered users and nearly 300 billion yuan in cumulative financing provided. The “IB Inclusive Finance” platform has system and business integrations with over 820 external scene platforms nationwide, resolving financing issues worth over 200 billion yuan, effectively addressing financing difficulties and high costs for small and medium-sized enterprises.
Industrial parks are pivotal carriers for economic development and transformation, playing a key role for the transition towards high-quality economic growth and industrial upgrading. IB has developed and launched the “Industrial Park Financial Ecology Service Platform” as a digital operational testing ground. This platform not only strengthens digital empowerment in park operations and enterprise services but also constructs the “Industrial Brain” module to assist local governments and park operators in precise investment attraction. As of the end of September, IB has launched and delivered this platform to 162 parks, with 48 more contracted and awaiting launch, totaling 210 integrated system platforms.
Digital technology underpins the digital economy. IB has initiated the “10,000 Technology Talents Program” and established a Fintech Research Institute. Focusing on five major directions: scene-based finance, intelligent finance, cloud finance, security finance, and E-CNY, the bank is dedicated to resolving key technological “bottleneck” challenges in the fintech sector and steadily advancing core technological autonomy.
Empowering Rural Revitalization with “Digital Solutions”
“The use of satellites for banking loans by IB was unexpected. It not only expedited the process but also helped monitor the growth of our tea leaves,” said the head of a Tieguanyin tea company in Anxi, Quanzhou. Recently, the company secured a 15 million yuan loan from IB’s Quanzhou branch using the “Planting Flow” model established by IB’s satellite remote sensing application system. This timely financial “spring rain” addressed the company’s funding needs for spring tea leaf collection.
As the homeland of Tieguanyin tea, Anxi’s tea industry is not only a hallmark of local culture but also a vital component of the livelihood industry. The challenge lies in propelling the entire tea industry chain to boost stable income growth for residents and businesses, transforming “small tea leaves” into a “major industry” in rural revitalization. In December 2022, IB launched a satellite remote sensing application system. Leveraging satellite technology to empower agricultural and forestry carbon sink scenarios, this initiative addresses traditional challenges in agricultural financing, such as the lack of collateral and difficulty in asset valuation, exploring a “Digital IB” model for financial services in rural revitalization. IB’s Quanzhou branch, supported by this technology and the “Planting Flow” model, creates crop portraits to enhance the credibility of financial risk assessment for agricultural clients, providing technological support for precision credit to the agricultural sector. IB’s satellite remote sensing application system won first place in the Space and Big Data Application Development track at the 2023 Digital China Innovation Contest and secured the second position in the Asia-Pacific region in the “2023 Eye on Innovation Awards for Financial Services” organized by Gartner, a leading global IT research and advisory company.
In early 2023, Jiutai Modern Agricultural Development Co., Ltd. in Youxi received a 3 million yuan credit financing from IB’s Sanming branch, through “Fintech Delegate.” In Fujian, IB, drawing on the science and technology commissioner system advocated by President Xi Jinping, has explored a new “Fintech Delegate” service model. This involves a team of “300 science and technology delegates + 100 financial delegates” and the establishment of a “Science and Technology Delegate Financial Service Zone” on Fujian’s important financial infrastructure platform “Fujian Financial Service Cloud Platform”. This initiative facilitates the transformation of scientific and technological achievements into financial support and directs more financial resources to the fertile grounds of rural areas. To date, IB has provided over 10 billion yuan in full lifecycle financing to enterprises in Fujian province managed or served via “Fintech Delegate.”
Thanks to the robust development and deep application of new-generation digital technologies, urban-rural integrated development is emerging as a new trend. IB fully leverages its strengths in Fintech to renovate the financial infrastructure using digital means—combining Tian-yan ( “The Eye of Heaven”) with AI. This integration transforms tea gardens and timberlands into assetized and creditworthy entities, innovating financing methods; Furthermore, IB has developed a biological asset supervision platform that uses IoT + AI technologies to make living biological assets creditworthy and monitorable, addressing long-standing financing difficulties in the livestock industry. Currently, the platform covers various biological assets like dairy cows, beef cattle, breeding sows, and fattening pigs, facilitating over 1 billion yuan in live collateral loans; IB has independently developed a photovoltaic service platform, utilizing blockchain + AI technology to monitor and measure rural solar power generation, enabling farmers to construct solar power stations through solar loans for additional income. Financial services are becoming more accessible and efficient, extending into rural areas and reaching farmers, thus contributing significantly to the comprehensive advancement of rural revitalization. As of the end of September this year, IB’s agriculture-related loan balance exceeded 640 billion yuan, ranking among the top joint-stock banks.
In the vast landscape of rural revitalization, there is a need to pool the collaborative efforts of the financial industry to paint a new picture of common prosperity. As one of the first syndicated cooperation brands launched domestically, IB Platform for Integrated Banking aggregates the power of the financial industry to aid high-quality development of rural finance. It extends financial services to China’s vast counties, townships, rural areas, and remote regions, covering 66 county-level institutions in Fujian province alone. Additionally, it delivers technological capabilities and high-quality wealth management products to over 220 rural commercial banks, rural credit cooperatives, and village banks nationwide, enabling residents and businesses in rural areas to enjoy quality modern financial services. As of September, IB Platform for Integrated Banking’s wealth product sales exceeded 520 billion yuan, serving 450 resale institutions.
Illuminating a Brighter Life with the “Digital Light”
“Instant payment, incredibly convenient!” exclaimed a resident of Fuzhou after effortlessly paying parking fees at the Fujian People’s Theater using the IB E-CNY Wallet.
As China’s 10th designated operator for E-CNY, IB is steadily advancing the research and pilot application of E-CNY. The bank was among the first to launch the IB E-CNY Wallet, continuously expanding unique scenarios and business models for E-CNY. By extending its service reach, IB is working to broaden the pilot scope and increase the adoption of E-CNY. To date, the bank has achieved full coverage in pilot regions for E-CNY and has signed service agreements with over 100 tier-2.5 cooperative banks.
Exploring the “E-CNY + Government Services” model, IB has integrated E-CNY into various government payment scenarios, such as corporate income tax, local non-tax revenue, social security payments, land transfer fees, resettlement house subsidy payments, real estate mortgage registration fees, and parking fees. In provinces and cities like Fujian and Shaanxi, IB has successfully implemented the first E-CNY non-tax revenue payment scenario, aiding digital government services. This initiative is aimed at “letting data travel more and people less,” thereby enhancing satisfaction and convenience for businesses and the public.
Creating distinctive brand features, IB opened the industry’s first Digital Wallet for Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan residents and conducted the first marine carbon credit transaction using E-CNY. Innovatively, IB introduced personal business loans and other E-CNY loan products, including Suzhou’s first “dual carbon” E-CNY loan. Currently, IB, in collaboration with IB Consumer Finance, has issued over 3 billion yuan in E-CNY consumer loans.
Actively responding to the Opinions on Supporting Fujian to Explore a New Path for Cross-Strait Integrated Development and Build a Demonstration Zone for Cross-Strait Integrated Development releasedby the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council, IB has initiated Taiwanese currency exchange to E-CNY services. They have launched services such as Digital Currency-based salary payments and property fee payments, optimizing payment experiences for Taiwanese residents on the mainland and providing thoughtful financial services to Taiwanese individuals and enterprises.
Focusing on inclusive services for the public, IB has conducted over 200 E-CNY popularization activities in a diverse, interactive, and engaging manner. The bank has distributed more than 20 million E-CNY consumption red packets, attracting participation from 600,000 individuals, effectively stimulating consumption recovery and revival.
“Despite traveling to many places, one’s heart and mind remain closely tied to, and cannot depart from Fuzhou”. This colloquial phrase encapsulates the rejuvenation of Fuzhou, the “City of a Thousand Gardens,” energized by digital empowerment and green transformation. At Fushan Country Park, visitors can “check in with a QR code” and exchange green energy points for special IB rewards. IB has digitally transformed and upgraded Fushan Country Park, creating a new “digital + ecological + financial” scene and crafting a smart park space for ecological leisure. This initiative has expanded to 21 parks including Fuzhou West Lake Park and Wushan Historic Scenic Area Park, with over 265,000 registered users on the smart exercise check-in platform, accumulating more than 220,000 kilometers in total check-in distance.
Whether it’s the Money Manager app, honed over 10 years and serving nearly 18 million users with one-stop wealth management services, or the IB e-Home integrated rental service platform, covering 1490 communities across 31 provincial-level regions in China and offering community life and financial services, or the “Smart Healthcare” solution that has benefited over a million patients, easing the challenges of accessing healthcare with a new “finance + technology + medical” service model. By focusing on “significant livelihood issues”, “critical minor concerns”, and “urgent, challenging matters that the public deeply cares about”, IB continuously transforms financial technology innovations into service advantages. This makes each digital application scenario a vivid embodiment of how a “good bank helps make life better.”