New vision: Western financial hub

Birthplace of world's earliest paper currency creating fintech incubator for some 300 firms

As the birthplace of jiaozi, the world's earliest paper currency, Chengdu is ramping up efforts to develop itself into a financial hub in western China.

By this year, the world's leading fintech innovation platform, Jiao Zi Fintech Dreamworks will be completed in Chengdu. It is expected to have an operation area of 100,000 square meters and attract about 300 fintech companies and 10,000 employees, local officials said.

Established by Chengdu Jiaozi Financial Holding Group in 2016, Dreamworks is China's first fintech incubator, focusing on frontier technologies in big data, cloud computing and block chain fields. Its core area is located at Chengdu Financial City.

Dreamworks includes the completed Tianfu International Financial Center and the Jiaozi Fintech Center, as well as the Financial Wheat Field under construction, a base for the research and application of fintech and international cooperation, said an official of Jiaozi Financial.

As a center of new finance in Chengdu, it has attracted tech companies involved in the sectors of block chain, artificial intelligence, big data and cloud computing, which will help innovation in finance, the official said.

Most of them have the potential to become unicorn companies, he added. A unicorn refers to a startup company valued at more than $1 billion.

To date, the incubator is home to 102 fintech teams from China and abroad, and more than 1,700 budding entrepreneurs in the industry.

Among the flourishing businesses at Dreamworks is Financial Service Intelligent Technology, a supplier of internet finance technology founded in 2017.

The company has developed an intelligent engine that can help financial institutions to recognize small and microbusinesses' operational risks in processing their loan applications.

The invention has increased the efficiency in loan authorization and enabled the company to rank top at a national risk recognition algorithm contest held last year by Ant Financial, a fintech company focusing on small businesses.

At present, the company offers financial services in supply chain, smart retail and modeling and algorithm for small and microbusinesses' risk control, helping more than 10 million users and over 500,000 small and microbusinesses to meet their financial needs for over 10 billion yuan ($1.49 billion).

Another shining example of innovative financial businesses is XW Bank, the third private-run internet bank in the country, which was founded in Chengdu in 2016.

With information technology engineers and algorithm scientists accounting for nearly 70 percent of its staff, the bank has since valued innovation and applied technologies related to mobile internet, cloud computing, big data and machine learning to its financial services, said Jiang Hai, board chairman of the bank.

Over the past two years, the bank has served more than 20.5 million customers and has granted loans worth 190 million yuan.

The bank announced earlier this month that it was granted the status of a national high-tech enterprise in late 2018, becoming the second in the industry winning the honor, after WeBank, China's first digital-based bank.

In addition to Dreamworks, Jiaozi Financial plans to complete and open a jiaozi-themed financial museum in Chengdu this year. The museum will exhibit the jiaozi history, the production and the circulation process of the ancient currency, as part of its push to inherit financial culture and to promote Chengdu's construction of a financial hub, according to the company.

"Dreamworks and the museum are the epitome of the development of Chengdu's financial industry and culture," said an official of Chengdu's financial regulatory bureau.

In recent years, Chengdu has rolled out many financial innovations, such as a fintech platform, the Tianfu (Sichuan) United Equity Exchange, which is the only cross-regional equity trading center in China, the country's first financial index of innovation and entrepreneurship, and a pilot program of rural financial services.

Currently, the city is home to more than 2,500 financial institutions and intermediaries.

In 2018, the added value of Chengdu's financial industry was 175.02 billion yuan, accounting for 12 percent of its GDP, official data showed.

Last year, the Chengdu government issued a guideline to facilitate the city's construction as a financial hub in western China.

According to the guideline, the city will give priority to developing the financial sector involving fintech, rural economy, consumption, supply chain, green finance and culture.

It will also enhance local financiers' strength in the capital market, fortune management, settlement, funding for innovation and startups, and new financing.

liangkaiyan@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 03/11/2019 page23)