The GBA Fintech Leaders Gather for Business Matchmaking – The Asian Banker 2024 Shenzhen & Hong Kong Innovation Tour

Aiming to strengthen cooperation and exchange of ideas among banks from Asia and fintech companies in the Greater Bay Area, and to assist companies to go global and develop in the international markets, Shenzhen FinTech Association and The Asian Banker Group held the 20th FinTech Matchmaking – The Asian Banker 2024 Shenzhen and Hong Kong Innovation Tour in the International Fintech City the International FinTech Center of the Greater Bay Area on 20 May.

The meeting was attended by Zhu Jiang, Deputy Director of the Shenzhen Municipal Local Financial Regulatory Bureau, and Yuan Ying, Deputy Director of The People's Government of Shenzhen Futian District. Participants of the meeting included Sheng Yangyi, Director of the Financial Policy and Regulations Department of Shenzhen Local Financial Administration Bureau, Gao Yang, Deputy Director of Shenzhen Futian District Financial Services and Risk Prevention and Control Center, Hu Wenbin, President and Executive Editor of The Asian Banker Group, representatives from the Shenzhen FinTech Association, Chief Information Officers, Chief Technology Officers and other executives from 20 financial institutions in the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region, as well as more than 40 Shenzhen FinTech Association members and representatives from enterprises settled in Futian Fintech Park companies, such as China Electronics Corporation, VZOOM Creditech, FinoGeeks, Dowsure, Samoyed Financial, Chiyu Technology Innovation and Transwarp Technology. The meeting was hosted in English by Xin Murong, Deputy Secretary-General of the Shenzhen FinTech Association.

Zhu Jiang, Deputy Director of the Shenzhen Municipal Local Financial Regulatory Bureau, extended a warm welcome to the "Asian Bankers". He introduced that Shenzhen had gathered leading companies such as Ping An Technology, CMG Fintech, and Tencent Fintech Technology, and was equipped with a complete ecosystem, rich scenarios, high-end talents and key technological innovations, as well as strong policy support. Shenzhen also actively promotes regulatory sandboxes and explores cross-border services to speed up the internationalization of the financial market. He hoped that the matchmaking event would promote cooperation between Asia’s financial institutions and fintech companies. He also anticipated excellent overseas projects to set up in Shenzhen, and that domestic and foreign countries would work together to tap into the potential of fintech and open a new chapter in Asia’s fintech sector.

Yuan Ying, Deputy Director of The People's Government of Shenzhen Futian District, said that in 2023, the value added by Futian District's financial sector was 240 billion RMB, accounting for 47% of Shenzhen's total figure, and the total number of licensed financial institutions was 289, accounting for 60% of Shenzhen's figure. Futian District has a solid foundation for digital finance developments and has formed a digital finance sector ecosystem with a strong industrial atmosphere. She mentioned that Futian was focusing on the construction of the Loop Cooperation Zone and the Xiangmi Lake New Financial Center. Futian was not only a blessed land full of opportunities, but also a fertile ground willing to share development results with global partners. She hoped that through this matchmaking event, companies and Asian financial institutions would strengthen cooperation to build a bright future for digital finance.

Hu Wenbin, President and Executive Editor of The Asian Banker Group, expressed his sincere gratitude to Shenzhen FinTech Association for organising this matchmaking event. He was delighted that this conference made use of A.I. translation technology, and such innovative application gave him a deep understanding of the vigorous development and broad prospects of the A.I. field. He hoped that through this matchmaking event, he could gain in-depth insights of the booming trend of Shenzhen's fintech development, and to have a full picture of the application scenarios of cutting-edge technologies such as A.I., blockchain, and cloud computing in financial sector, in order to seek more opportunities for cooperation and development.

The matchmaking event brought together Chief Information Officers and Chief Technology Officers from 20 financial institutions from the Middle East and Asia Pacific region, including GXBank from Malaysia, Bank Permata, Hang Seng Bank, Seram Bank, Hatton National Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, Commerce International Merchant Bank, RHB Bank, Vietnam Prosperity Joint Stock Commercial Bank, The National Commercial Bank of Timor-Leste, Bank Pasargadae and Vietcombank. During the meeting, Shenzhen FinTech Association members and representatives from enterprises settled in Futian Fintech Park companies, such as China Electronics Corporation, VZOOM Creditech, FinoGeeks, Dowsure, Samoyed Financial, Chiyu Technology Innovation and Transwarp Technology actively promoted their businesses to the participating bankers.

The event was filled with enthusiasm and vitality. The executive members of Asian banks showed strong interest in and keen response to the promotion of each company, which fully demonstrated the outstanding strength of each company's products and technologies. Facing the eager inquiries from the Asian banking representatives, representatives from the enterprises answered every question with patience and in detail, creating a lively and interactive atmosphere. Some business representatives said that this matchmaking event was a step towards internationalization, and provided precious opportunity to the companies that had overseas development plans. Other representatives pointed out that being able to have direct conversations with so many senior executives of the Asian banking sector in the same place and to present tailor-made introductions, was the core value and key to success of this event. Such efficient and precise format of networking  fully reflected the essence of the event, which was to promote win-win cooperation.

Disclaimer: This article is published by 深圳市金融科技协会 and has been translated into English. If there is any inconsistency or ambiguity between the English version and Chinese version, the latter one shall prevail. The full text of the article, in Chinese, can be found below: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/Fo2vlHJcn_D7pVLrKyeznQ