Ping An Bank is a leader in China’s financial technology area. By the end of 2020, the bank had 8,500 technology staff, representing a 12.5% year-on-year increase. Its capital expenditure in information technology last year jumped 34%, according to its annual report.
A chunk of that money has gone towards Ping An’s technology offerings for clients. Last year, the bank made impressive strides in its Nebula internet of things (IoT) system and open application programming interface (API).
The Nebula IoT system has adopted technologies including IoT, blockchain, artificial intelligence and big data, to collect, manage and identify data. The data has helped Ping An create a new supply chain finance system. Traditionally, supply chain finance is based on the core clients’ credit to finance upstream and downstream small and medium-sized companies. But with the help of technology, Ping An uses data as a kind of guarantee, which means no collateral is needed, and SMEs can raise financing even if the core client’s credit is viewed as weak by banks.
This mechanism has been applied in industries such as manufacturing, logistics, dairy farming, automotive and energy.
Take a dairy farm for instance; all dairy cows will wear ankle bracelets or earrings to track their movements, while the milking room is equipped with identity recognition systems to track the milk production of each cow.