Recently, the Postal Savings Bank of China (PSBC) and Ant Financial Services Group held a signing ceremony of a strategic partnership agreement in Beijing. Zhang Jinliang, Chairman of PSBC, Jing Xiandong, Chairman and CEO of Ant Financial Services Group, attended the ceremony. Zhang Xuewen, Vice President of PSBC, and Huang Hao, Vice President of Ant Financial signed the agreement on behalf of both parties.

According to the agreement, PSBC and Ant Financial will further strengthen their partnership in financial business and financial technology on the basis of current cooperation. In the field of financial business, both sides will make full use of their respective channels and resources to continuously optimize their cooperation mode, and deepen cooperation in electronic payment and settlement, Internet credit, rural finance, ETC issuance, corporate finance and bill payment service, etc. In the field of financial technology, the two sides will work together to explore joint laboratory establishment and financial technology innovation. Moreover, the two sides will carry out extensive exchanges and cooperation in network security, outlets intelligent transformation and other aspects.

Zhang Jinliang said that PSBC and Ant Financial will give full play to their respective advantages, build an online and offline integrated financial service system, and jointly explore a sustainable development path of inclusive finance. Jing Xiandong said that serving economy and people's livelihood is the common mission and duty of both sides, therefore the cooperation is the result of a common vision.

PSBC is a large State-owned commercial bank with the largest number of outlets and the only one that reach down to the remotest rural areas. It has nearly 40000 outlets, serving about 600 million individual customers, which accounts for more than 40% of China's population. As a financial technology company, Ant Financial has Alipay, Yu’ebao (an online fund investment platform) and other products under its banner to provide inclusive financial services for consumers and small and micro enterprises. After a strategic partnership was established between the two parties in 2015, various services have been fully advanced. In the field of people's livelihood services such as ETC issuance, for example, PSBC is the first large State-owned bank to cooperate with Ant Financial.

Xu Ke, Deputy Director of the Center for Research on Financial Technology and Internet Security of the Renmin University of China, thinks that the integration of Internet financial technology platform and banking is becoming a new trend of financial innovation development in China. Internet platform and banking complement each other in customer traffic, capital, technology, data and other aspects, so that efficient and convenient financial services may reach down to more small and micro enterprises and niche customers and improve the availability of financial services in China.