China is quickly becoming home to the largest fintech ecosystem in the world, benefiting from historically low use of traditional banking, high smartphone penetration, a changing demographic and a consumer acceptance of banking without traditional infrastructure. Dominated by giants like Baidu, Ant, PingAn and Tencent, combined with many highly successful start-ups like WeLab, the success in delivering both personalized financial services and an impressive level of financial inclusion is a model for the rest of the world.

 

This is not a story of disruption of legacy banking as much as a story of filling a previously unmet need for advanced financial services supported by smartphones.

 

To discuss how fintech firms have benefited from open access to data, and how the Chinese consumer benefits from value added services not available to most in the world, I am joined by my friend, Matt Dooley, founding board member of the Fintech Association of Hong Kong and founder of Connected Thinking Ltd. who guided a tour of Shenzhen for myself and the former global CEO of HeathWallace, Dave Wallace.