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Author: Gao Ming, President, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (Macao)

Technology, data and talent are the most important production factors to give a huge boost especially to the development and innovation of financial business. With a small local market, Macao’s banking sector faces intense and homogeneous competition and it is difficult to take advantage of economies of scale. To mitigate this problem, ICBC (Macao) has fully utilized its fintech advantage under the auspices of ICBC Group and carried out an innovation-oriented and digital transformation.

A cutting-edge technological strategy
We have established fintech transformation as a corporate strategy, to help deepen the integration of technology, data and financial business, establishing a committee for financial technology and digital development to promote the application of new technologies and ideas, and to build an innovative, leading and environmentally friendly brand image company. We have also assembled adaptive teams composed of members from IT, business and product departments to facilitate the implementation of fintech in the banking industry, and evaluated the results through a practical, retrospective and participatory method.

Through the application of technology, including big data and artificial intelligence, we have upgraded our risk management

Riding the wave of fintech development and Macao’s smart city strategy, we have aimed to accelerate fintech innovation and iteration by accelerating a digital reform on customer service and business channels, especially our mobile banking service. We have also been committed to promoting innovation and optimization of financial business, work processes and internal management. As a field test of the group’s overseas business, we have taken the initiative to build a bank with the best customer service and promoted our competitive advantage through the application of fintech.

As part of this technology-leading strategy, we have continuously improved our service capability and succeeded in acquiring customers. Our e-banking accounts for more than 80% of our entire business, and the online channel has played an important role in attracting and retaining customers. As a result, we have continued to stay ahead of our competitors in financial products and services.

Digitalized operations
Aiming to deepen our technology-based innovation capabilities and uphold the philosophy of technology self-sufficiency, we have focused on developing technology to support business development and have strengthened the ECOS technology ecosystem to provide powerful engines for business development. To transform our business and develop a technology-based and innovation-oriented mode, we have used data and technology, which has been the impetus for building user platforms and scenarios, advancing products and services, building a user ecosystem, and integrating our online and offline business layouts.

From there, we continued to promote the optimization of outlets and expanded our customer service channels. Focused on customers and driven by data, the bank improved the layout of a digital operating system and quickly created a new full-journey service model for customers. As the first bank in Macao to build a smart banking network and provide services for cross-border e-commerce, smart card issuance and cross-border mortgage data connection, we have become a fintech leader in the Macao banking industry. We also reformed the overall systematic layout of retail outlets and promoted the upgrade of Macao’s financial service to a higher level aimed at convenience and efficiency for our customers.

With this in mind, we have created a ubiquitous and collaborative online and offline service channel system, advanced the integration of mobile banking into point-of-sale marketing services, and intensified integrated online and offline operations. Through the versatile application of various financial technologies, we have improved the customer experience in online acquisitions, remittances, wealth management and bill payments, and covered one-third of Macao residents using our electronic payment service. We also took the lead in launching the “Greater Bay Area Transit QR Code”, which allows people to travel by bus in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao with just one code, thus creating a competitive advantage as a leading bank in the Macao payment market.

We have continued to enrich financial products by accelerating the construction of the enterprise digital finance service platform and building new avenues for digital operations. Under the group’s global structure, we have taken full advantage of online corporate banking services to develop cross-border and multi-currency fund pool products, and have built a global liquidity management system covering 104 countries/regions and 61 currencies, with an annual settlement amount rate of over MOP 1 trillion ($124 billion). We are also the first bank in Macau to organize a fintech competition for university students, aiming to cultivate more financial and technology talent for the region.

Ensuring innovation
We have improved our cybersecurity capabilities by combining efforts in managing assets, testing and evaluating our systems, protecting cybersecurity and improving data security. We have followed a systematic approach to improve our overall cybersecurity protection capability. Furthermore, through the application of technologies such as big data and artificial intelligence, we have upgraded our risk management with a comprehensive system covering risk monitoring, early warning and intervention, with automatic interception of suspicious transactions . We have also introduced the latest technology in identity authentication and data processing and made our offices paperless to improve work efficiency and reduce waste.

Digitalization serves as a critical impetus for the future development of the banking sector. It is also the key for ICBC (Macao) to promote innovation and advance in the market. Therefore, we will remain committed to seizing future opportunities for digital reform and will continue to come up with bold strategies and innovative ideas for future development.

We consider digital culture an important part of our corporate culture

Our mission remains clear. Our goal is to build a “digitalized ICBC”, which will adhere to improving the ability to serve our users with comprehensive digital operations, remote service and intelligent risk control. In addition, we will continue to digitalize our service platform, operating mechanism and risk control system, aiming to improve customer service, empower our workforce and improve work efficiency and effectiveness. We regard digital culture as an important part of our corporate culture and aim to continue to promote staff training for digital reform, cultivating talented professionals in our industry. We aim to provide staff training for the entire front-to-back office by inviting experts and visiting professional institutions, in order to cultivate a “digital mode of thinking” within the organization and thereby secure the reputation of being a leading technology company in all respects.

The final principle of our mission is to deepen our fintech application. We will strive to set up new work processes for online and offline operations, build a new service model for information sharing, integrate clear steps into our workflow, and effectively combine resources to provide timely responses to customer inquiries.

We have also paid attention to the breakthrough of generative AI, and will continue to explore the application of large language models (LLM) in marketing, prevention and risk management. Looking ahead, we will continue to strive to build a thriving digital ecosystem that combines unparalleled financial services with the real economy, to further promote the upgrading of traditional industries and the development of emerging industries.

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