CCB group enjoys strong mobile, online banking growth driven by fintech

By Jailani Hasan

 KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 5 -- The China Construction Bank (CCB) group is benefitting from financial technology (fintech), having the foresight on how it could potentially change people’s lifestyle and the way of doing business in the context of the financial industry.

CCB Malaysia chief executive officer Felix Feng Qi, who is also CCB Labuan principal officer, said since 2019, the group had emphasised the importance of technology transformation.

It has invested more than US$2 billion in fintech initiatives and posted more than 10,000 information technology (IT) staff across various countries, who account for almost three per cent of the group’s total headcount.

“Fintech has empowered us in further adherence to our mobile-first strategy, innovation of online financial security services, and enhanced risk prevention and control,” he said in a presentation on “Know Your Customer/Customer Due Diligence with Information Technology” during the 22nd Asia Pacific Group Typologies Workshop, which was held virtually over four days ending today.

Speaking from CCB’s office in Kuala Lumpur, Feng Qi said the number of CCB’s personal mobile banking users globally rose to 351 million and more than 17 billion in transactions were recorded as at end-2019 involving over US$8.3 trillion.

He said as for the corporate mobile banking, the number of users exceeded 1 million and the number of transactions was almost 10 million, amounting to US$150 billion.

“Our strength in mobile banking data traffic has become a solid foundation which supports the development of the bank’s retail business.

“In addition, we promote the development of personal online banking with digitalised marketing and customer-centric strategy, enriched investment and wealth management products and services such as asset planning and asset allocation.

“At the end of 2019, the number of personal online banking users had risen to more than 300 million and the number of transactions had surpassed 31 billion (with value) exceeding US$4 trillion,” he said.

 Feng Qi said the number of corporate online banking users had also increased to more than nine million, and the number of transactions exceeded two billion involving over US$29.4 trillion.

CCB has expanded its network in Malaysia four years ago, establishing its 30th Tier-1 overseas subsidiary, CCB Malaysia Bhd, in January 2017 and Tier-1 overseas branch – CCB Labuan branch – in June 2019.

In addition, CCB Labuan was granted approval by the Labuan Financial Services Authority to launch its digital banking activities in August 2019.

He said the establishment of CCB Malaysia as well as CCB Labuan was seen as an important milestone for CCB within its globalisation drive to support the Belt and Road Initiative.

CCB Malaysia and CCB Labuan will leverage on CCB Group’s strengths and business support, and continue to offer a valuable banking experience to all our customers.

Meanwhile, he said the CCB group’s total assets exceeded US$4 trillion and its net profit surpassed US$21 billion in the first half of 2020.

In addition, the CCB group has also become a dominant support for the real economy and in providing supply chain financing to more than 2,500 core corporations to resume work and production after the COVID-19 pandemic.

The workshop was organised by the Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering in Australia to bring together experts from financial institutions, regulatory bodies and law enforcement agencies from 41 countries, jurisdictions and regions to discuss money laundering and terrorist financing trends as well as policy issues emerging from those trends.

-- BERNAMA