On May 11th, COAMC signed the Agreement for All-dimensional Strategic Cooperation with Ant Financial Services Group in Hangzhou, actively responding to the “Internet +” action plan proposed by the government and following the new trend of the financial industry.
According to the Agreement, the cooperation between both sides will be strengthened in providing comprehensive financial services for financing and investment, credit enhancement as well as other business sectors. We would draw on each other’s strength and achieve mutual development based on our complementary advantages.
In fact, COAMC has been working with Zhao Cai Bao, a financing platform under Ant Financial Services Group, since 2014. Relying on its competitive edge in terms of asset management and risk control capability, COAMC offered quality financial assets to the customers on Zhao Cai Bao. The first phase of cooperation was supported with projects with a total value of more than RMB 2 billion. The signing of this agreement is a beginning of the deeper and all-dimensional cooperation that will be carried out between the two sides.
Mr. Zhang Zi’ai, the president of COAMC, commented on the signing ceremony, “The modern version of China’s financial reform has just started. License restriction is loosened step by step and the registration system of the capital market is expected to be phased in. The RMB is more and more internationalized and convertible. The interest rate is gradually liberalized. Financial institutions now can offer more comprehensive services, offering loans while making investments on the other hand for example. The Internet finance has gained momentum. All these expected changes will significantly transform the nature and logic of the financial industry in China which will bring endless opportunities and profound influence. The cooperation between COAMC and Ant Financial Services is very promising.
Zhang Zi’ai said “Apart from the RMB 2 billion asset projects we put on Zhao Cai Bao, our subsidiaries, such as China United Property Insurance, Shenzhen Qianhai Special Opportunity Investment Fund and Orient Bangxin Rongtong Holding Co., Ltd., have been steadily pushing forward their cooperation with Ant Financial Services in relevant business sectors.”
Pei Lei, CEO of Ant Financial Services, said “Our cooperation set a good example for the cross-industry collaboration between financial institutions and Internet companies. COAMC has its advantages in financial innovation, asset management and risk control. Zhao Cai Bao is good at customer networking and platform building. So this is a powerful combination of both of our strength. More importantly, COAMC created a new pattern and sets of standards in this regard for other Asset Management Companies through innovation and exploration, which would prompt deeper integration between financial companies and Internet industry. As our cooperation develops, there would be deeper integration between both sides in technology and data etc.”
“Internet + COAMC” is boosted.
COAMC was established in 1999 as a financial institution wholly-owned by the Ministry of Finance. After completing its task of policy NPA disposal in 2006, COAMC started its market-oriented transformation from scratch. Based on the investment opportunities brought by the NPA business, COAMC has acquired multiple holding companies in insurance, securities, trust, financial leasing, and credit rating through debt restructuring. It has become a financial holding group which offers comprehensive financial services to its clients which can cover the whole business life cycle. The total asset of COAMC has reached RMB 340 billion with net assets reaching RMB 46 billion. It now serves over 8 million customers.
The Internet finance has gained momentum and “Internet +” has become part of China’s national strategies. COAMC has been actively exploring the possibility of working with the IT industry since last year to speed up the process of “Internet + COAMC”.
Last June, Orient Bangxin Rongtong Holding Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of COAMC, introduced “Eastlending”, a P2P lending platform on the Internet. Eastlending, operated under O2O model, completed transactions with a total amount of RMB 1 billion within its first six months thanks to the backing of COAMC, the state-owned parent company. On April 2nd, Eastlending signed the Agreement of Strategic Cooperation with Guangxi Payexpress Business Service Company Limited, which showed that the state-owned P2P lending platform had made its mark in the Third Party Payment industry.
On April 7th, Dongxing Securities, a COAMC’s subsidiary, officially initiated its strategic cooperation on Internet finance with Sina.com. By connecting its account opening, online customer service, and products selling with the finance section on Sina.com, Dongxing Securities can now offer more convenient online account opening, online sale of financial products and consulting services.
China United Insurance, another subsidiary of COAMC, has put “Internet +” into their development strategy in order to make breakthrough on the mobile end of the Internet by achieving online & offline as well as Internet & Telecom integration. Focused on the online sales platform, China United tries to have access to a huge number of customers through self-run website and mobile phones. Through O2O integration and the merger of Internet and telecom network, China United will provide insurance policies, insurance accounts and compensation on the Internet.
What is worth mentioning is that COAMC, whose business is supposed to be driven by insurance and asset management as its two wheels, is stepping up its efforts in building synergies among different business sectors and coordinating the information and technology support. Internet plays an important role in bringing together different business sectors so as to offering quality services to its clients.
Zhang Zi’ai said yesterday that the signing of the Strategic Cooperation Agreement with Ant Financial Services Group offers a precious opportunity for COAMC to learn from the best Internet firm in China. He said “we can draw on the experience of Ant Financial Service through future cooperation”.
