CAIRO, Jan. 29, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Zhou Jing, the president of Pintec Technology
Holdings Limited ("PINTEC")
(Nasdaq: PT), a leading independent technology platform
enabling financial services in China, laid out her vision on Monday for how
to drive financial inclusion globally, which will require providing
financial products and services to meet the needs of individuals
and businesses in a responsible and sustainable way.
Today there are approximately 2 billion adults globally, or
almost a third of the world's population, who do not have access to
formal financial services, Zhou said in an address to the Banking
Tech North Africa conference in Cairo,
Egypt. The drive for the financial inclusion of this group
that is currently under-served by traditional financial
institutions must focus on three key areas: a recognition of
millennials as the financial force of tomorrow; financial access
that can overcome geographic challenges; and a new approach to
financing micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises, she said.
Millennials will be the major revenue contributor to financial
institutions by 2030, according to a study by Barclays. So
understanding this generation, which has a limited financial
history available, is a crucial first step, Zhou said. This tech
savvy group is willing to adopt new technologies, and often learns
about financial products and services through social media. This
generation's mobile-centric and digitally connected lifestyle
leaves a large online footprint, providing alternative data that
may offer financial insights into borrowers, she said.
Geographical dispersion presents another big opportunity and
challenge for financial inclusion, as distribution of traditional
financial services has often been uneven, Zhou said. For example,
according to a report by Bank Indonesia, 74 percent of commercial
bank outlets in Indonesia are on
just two islands, Java and
Sumatra. Indonesia is, however, a
nation of 17,000 islands, leaving residents elsewhere largely
underserved. Digital financial services can help bridge this kind
of geographical gap, Zhou said.
Likewise, a lack of financing for small businesses has vexed
policy makers around the globe for years. There have been many
constraints on such financing including lack of financial
transparency; scarce collateral; high cost of origination; weak
financial infrastructure; and inadequate data.
The solution to each of these challenges, and to helping
institutions to drive financial inclusion and enjoy exponential
growth, is the adoption of next-generation credit assessment built
on smarter data, and simpler credit, Zhou said. This involves
alternative data, intelligent credit processing and a flexible IT
infrastructure, she said.
Smarter data means financial institutions must begin to use
alternative information to augment their traditional data. Many
forms of alternative data are available to provide insights into
borrowers, Zhou said. These include e-commerce data, such as
transaction history and spending behavior; payment platform data,
such as cash inflows/outflows, and tax payments; rent and utility
records, and many others.
By using such forms of alternative data, Oliver Wyman estimates 20%-30% of the unbanked
population may become scoreable, Zhou said. A key consideration
here, however, is whether financial institutions can obtain both
regulatory and customer approval for using alternative data to
assess credit and, if so, what usage of data is legal and
acceptable.
Any new credit assessment process must also be focused on
providing simpler credit, Zhou said. This means tailoring the
process for convenience and speed to deliver an instant credit
assessment with approve/decline decisions in real time, along with
risk-based pricing, and credit limit calculation, she said.
Since its founding, PINTEC has been focused on using technology
to drive financial inclusion in China. The company uses technology to enable
companies to offer financial products to their customers
efficiently and effectively, while connecting 86 financial partners
with PINTEC's end users, and those of its 186 business partners.
From inception through Sept. 30,
2018, PINTEC has recorded 27.9 million cumulative registered
users; a cumulative loan outstanding balance of RMB6.4 billion; and a cumulative wealth
management transaction amount of RMB 5.5
billion.
The positive experience of PINTEC in the competitive
China market demonstrates that,
working together, banks, governments and technology companies have
it within their power to solve the problem of financial inclusion
today.
Safe Harbor Statement
This press release contains forward-looking statements. These
statements constitute "forward-looking" statements within the
meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as
amended, and as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can be
identified by terminology such as "will," "expects," "anticipates,"
"future," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates," "target,"
"confident" and similar statements. Such statements are based upon
management's current expectations and current market and operating
conditions, and relate to events that involve known or unknown
risks, uncertainties and other factors, all of which are difficult
to predict and many of which are beyond the Company's control.
Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks, uncertainties
and other factors that could cause actual results to differ
materially from those contained in any such statements. Information
regarding these and other risks, uncertainties or factors is
included in the Company's filings with the U.S. Securities and
Exchange Commission. All information provided in this press release
is as of the date of this press release, and PINTEC does not
undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement as
a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as
required under applicable law.
About PINTEC
PINTEC is a leading independent technology platform
enabling financial services in China. With its mission to
"Power the Future of Finance", PINTEC aims to advance
financial services by providing customizable and modular fintech
solutions to its financial and business partners. In fields such as
online travel, e-commerce, telecommunications, online education,
SaaS Platforms, financial technology, internet search, and online
classifieds and listings, PINTEC enables financial
services for institutional partners with point-of-sale financing
solutions, personal installment loan solutions, business
installment loan solutions, wealth management solutions and
insurance solutions. PINTEC's services include:
consulting services, SaaS technology services and other value-added
services. PINTEC has cooperated with a number of
business partners and financial partners, including without
limitation Xiaomi, Qunar, Ctrip, China Telecom BestPay,
Vip.com, shouqianba.com, Minsheng Securities, Orient
Securities, Yunnan Trust, Guoyuan Securities, China National
Investment & Guaranty Corporation, Fullerton Financial
Holdings. PINTEC has launched two joint ventures to serve
the Southeast Asian market: Avatec.ai (S) Pte. Ltd, formed in
2018 to offer credit assessment services and solutions,
while PIVOT Fintech Pte. Ltd ("PIVOT"), formed in 2017 to
provide robo-advisory services. On October 25,
2018, PINTEC was officially listed on the Nasdaq
Global Market with American depositary shares trading under
the symbol "PT".
For more information, please visit www.pintec.com
Media Inquiries, please contact:
PINTEC
Annie He
Phone: +86 (10) 8564-3436
yini.he@pintec.com
ICR Inc.
Edmond Lococo
Phone: +86 (10) 6583-7510
Edmond.Lococo@icrinc.com
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