With the advancement of new financial infrastructure, the integration of online and offline financial institutions will be a key driver of revenue growth. OneConnect Financial Technology Co., Ltd. (“OneConnect” or the “Company") (NYSE: OCFT), a leading technology-as-a-service platform for financial institutions and an associate of the Ping An Group, is leading the way in China.

At a recent technology industry roundtable discussion in Shenzhen, Mr. Ricky Ou, CEO of Gamma of OneConnect, said the new digital infrastructure will have four impacts on traditional finance: creating new drivers for consumption; promoting the digital transformation of financial institutions; improving industry efficiency; and assisting in the restructure of the financial sector.

COVID-19 Created Urgency for Contact-Free Banking

Within the trend of digital transformation, the COVID-19 pandemic has created urgency for traditional banks to increase online capabilities. For example, during the epidemic, OneConnect used artificial intelligence, big data and other technologies to help many banks build "contact-free banks" to fight the epidemic while maintaining business.

Digitized Operations Improves Lending for SMEs

As an important builder of new fintech infrastructure, OneConnect has actively seized opportunities in recent years and continuously improved its own capacity.

At the beginning of this year, OneConnect provided technical support for a financing platform for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) that was launched in Guangdong Province to address the issues of "difficult, expensive and slow financing" of SMEs. By September 2020, the platform had access to a total of 250 government data from 34 government units, and collected comprehensive information for more than 13 million SMEs in the province. More than 350 financial institutions have launched more than 1,000 financing products on the platform, more than 500,000 enterprises registered, and the total amount of financing has exceeded RMB30 billion.

New Regulatory Framework Needed

While the new infrastructure will facilitate the digital transformation of the traditional financial sector, it will also create some new challenges. Fintech innovation itself requires a deep integration of technology and finance to promote two-way interaction and improvement of financial and technological capabilities. However, at the same time, the innovation of financial infrastructure also needs a new regulation framework for digital supervision and compliance.

In order to avoid a bottleneck in implementing new financial infrastructure, the financial sector needs to speed up the industrialization of data elements, enhance the autonomous control of fintech and engage industry associations and regulators to build a robust financial technology ecosystem.

Gamma Platform Accelerates Digital Transformation

The OneConnect Gamma platform and its business line product portfolio is a solution that covers banking, insurance and investment. Built on more than 30 years of financial experience of the Ping An Group, Gamma integrates advanced Ping An technologies in core system, data service, open platform, artificial intelligence and cloud services. It empowers financial institutions and financial regulators by lowering technology barriers and building an efficient financial and technology innovation ecosystem to accelerate digital transformation.

About OneConnect

OneConnect is a leading technology-as-a-service platform for financial institutions in China. The Company’s platform provides cloud-native technology solutions that integrate extensive financial services industry expertise with market-leading technology. The Company’s solutions provide technology applications and technology-enabled business services to financial institutions. Together they enable the Company’s customers’ digital transformations, which help them increase revenue, manage risks, improve efficiency, enhance service quality and reduce costs.

Our technology-as-a-service platform strategically covers multiple verticals in the financial services industry, including banking, insurance and asset management, across the full scope of their businesses – from sales and marketing and risk management to customer services, as well as technology infrastructure such as data management, program development, and cloud services.