Abstract

China FinTech Annual Report（2018）is the first report co-published by the Research Center of Financial Technology in National Institution for Finance and Development and Fifty People Forum of Financial Technology. The report is aimed at improving the theoretical basis and research methods in FinTech with systematic analysis of the innovation and development, the evolution and market prospects, and the standard and policy changes in FinTech area at home and abroad.

The report consists of five parts. The first part clarifies the definition and scope of FinTech that we should give more focus on. The section of technology starts from basic technology and application level, which including big data, artificial intelligence, interconnect technologies（mobile internet, internet of things）, distributed technology（cloud computing, blockchain）, as well as security technologies（biometrics, encryption）, and conducts theoretical discussions and dynamically tracks on related technology categories. While people paying more attention to some emerging FinTech business and products, the second part shows that technology innovation has long been the main driving force of financial reform even though its role only gets recognized recently. The section of industry tries to investigate on the application of FinTech in traditional finance industry from the perspective of banking industry, securities industry and insurance industry. Based on the classification of Financial Stability Board and Basel Committee, the third part divides the FinTech business into four segments:payment and settlement, deposit and loan and capital financing, investment management, market facilities（including distributed accounts）. Relying on the classification methods stated above, this part focuses on the analysis of the financial innovations outside the mainstream of financial system. The fourth part proposes that healthy development of FinTech business depends on the deep understanding of risk and supervision, particularly the identification, management and supervision of risks. Those factors constitute to an important research area of FinTech. The section of risks tries to make up for the lack of those research area. From a global perspective, the fifth part explores a comparative research paradigm of theory, policy and practice in FinTech area.

This report can be a reference book for regulators, self-regulatory organizations and other economic authorities in their decision-making related to FinTech. It also offers basic materials to financial institutions, FinTech enterprises and researchers in FinTech area.