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On-line Banking Takes Centre Stage
Experts said that China's commercial banks need to adjust their strategies to maintain their competitiveness, as Internet-related technologies revise the landscape of the traditional financial industry, according to Chinadaily.
Many aspects of traditional banking should be changed, such as management concepts, marketing strategies, the scope of the banking enterprise and client structures, according to Zhu Min, general manager of the Institute of International Finance under the Bank of China (BOC).
"With the development of the Internet and China's pending entry into the World Trade Organization, on-line banking will be the direction of the local financial industry," Zhu said during a recent seminar.
The seminar, "The Trend of Global On-line Banking Development & Electronic Financial Technology Symposium," was co-sponsored by the BOC, Octasoft China Co Ltd and the Only Rising International Investment Co Ltd.
On-line banking allows faster transactions and a broader range of services, Zhu said.
The rapid penetration of the Internet has allowed non-banking institutions to provide certain banking services, as in the food industry in France, prompting banks to step up efforts to wed its traditional businesses with the new technologies and ideas.
Banks control less than one-third of personal assets in the United States, partly as a result of competition from their new rivals, Zhu said.
In addition to a growing rivalry that is requiring banks to get more Internet-savvy, a huge market for on-line banking services promises them bright prospects.
More than 60 per cent of the world's Web surfers access the Internet in search of financial and banking services and information, Zhu said.
Internet use has expanded 10 times since 1999. Use has grown by an average of 80 per cent during the last five years in China, much higher than Asia's 50 per cent.
"The Internet has shortened the distance between banks and customers," a representative of China Merchants Bank said. "And with more people surfing the Internet, it's easy for us to serve customers with our high technologies."
China's commercial banks have been trying to become more Internet-friendly in recent years and have launched several on-line businesses, which has created huge demand for related technical backup.
Octasoft Co Ltd, one of the co-sponsors of the seminar, has offered its business-to-business e-financial solutions to participating banks to assist them in their on-line banking programmes.
The joint venture has provided Internet banking solutions to a number of financial institutions including the Chinatrust Bank in Taiwan, Taipei Bank, Asia Pacific Bank, Grand Commercial Bank and Dao Heng Bank in Hong Kong.
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