China Warms Up to Private Online Banking.docVIP

China Warms Up to Private Online Banking 　　 The First Transac-tion 　　On January 4， China’s Premier Li Keqiang launched a new era for the country’s online private banking by ceremonially pressing the button to finalize a 35000 yuan loan issued to Xu Jun， a Shenzhen truck driver. 　　Just in case， when we talk about private banking in this context， it doesn’t refer to private banking in terms of wealth management， but banks that are 100% separate from the government and owned by private entities， which in China is very rare. 　　Li’s gesture on behalf of Shenzhen Qianhai WeBank， a new online bank and one of the five privately funded banks specially approved in China， was the inaugural transaction for the country’s first no-bricks， no-mortar， 24-hour， online-only bank. 　　As part of the financial reform， the Chinese government is letting more private capital into the banking sector， and online-only banking that focuses on lending to blue collar workers and small business owners is a primary trend of it. 　　Regulators approved WeBank， which is affiliated with the WeChat social messaging app operated by Tencent Holdings Ltd.， in December， 2014. Ac-cording to a source close to the matter， the next-in-line for inauguration is Zhejiang Internet Commerce Bank （ZICB）， which is controlled by Ant Financial Services Group， an affiliate of China’s e-commerce giant Alibaba. 　　During a visit to Qianhai Webank， Premier Li Keqiang said he placed high hopes on online competition in the banking sector to cut costs and force State-owned financial giants to change outdated business models. 　　“Internet-based banking is a significant step of China’s financial reform，”Li said， stressing that the government will provide a good environment for the development of private and online banks. 　　 How Does it Work 　　WeBank and ZICB plan to use new， Internet-linked data mining tools to assess loan applicants. Various online platforms， such as the WeChat app with 600 million-users， will be use