Xie Yonglin of Ping An: Technology's Dual Empowerment of Financial Services

HONG KONG and SHANGHAI, Sept. 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd. (hereafter "Ping An" or the "Group", HKEX: 2318; SSE: 601318) announced that Xie Yonglin, President and Co-CEO of Ping An Group, spoke at the 12^th Lujiazui Forum on how technology can transform financial services and better serve small and micro-enterprises.

The Shanghai forum brought together government officials and international finance experts to discuss issues such as sustainable growth of the global economy.

Mr. Xie highlighted that technology can boost the financial services industry through two development paths, which he called "from 0 to 1" and "from 1 to N".

Technology is a major factor of global financial competitiveness, Mr. Xie said. "From 0 to 1" is about leading financial institutions, including banks, insurance companies, brokers and funds, developing technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), blockchain, cloud and big data to enhance their core financial businesses. Technology can improve efficiency and customer experience and reduce costs and risks.

Enterprises can then share their "from 0 to 1" experience and innovations to empower small and medium-sized financial institutions – extending technological advancement to the broader industry, "from 1 to N".

"From 0 to 1": leveraging technology to enhance core financial businesses

Citing Ping An as an example, Mr. Xie noted the Group has achieved remarkable results in its core financial businesses through its "finance + technology" strategy. For example, the 510 Superfast Investigation of Ping An's auto insurance provides swift processing of daytime urban auto accidents within 5 to 10 minutes, leveraging technology to establish a new industry benchmark for claims processing while limiting traffic disruptions.

Ping An Bank has shortened credit card issuance time from two days for manual to two minutes by AI evaluation. Ping An Bank's application process for its Xinyidai unsecured loans and other credit products are fully managed online, shortening the process from applying to granting of the loan to 10 seconds, while its smart risk management model has reduced credit losses by 60% compared to the manual system.

Mr. Xie said, "There are two vital conditions for self-developed technological capabilities 'from 0 to 1'. First, sustained and significant investment in technology by the large financial institutions is required. Ping An has invested more than RMB100 billion in technology in the past 10 years and will continue to invest RMB100 billion in the next five years. Second, the research and development and application of technology are highly dependent on a wealth of financial scenarios, requiring constant trial and error and continuous iteration."

"From 1 to N": empowering small and medium-sized financial institutions

Mr. Xie said that small and medium-sized financial institutions would not likely have the financial resources or the R&D capabilities to develop their own technologies. To fully achieve technological transformation across the financial services industry, leading enterprises need to support small and medium-sized financial institutions to boost their service efficiency and effectiveness to better serve small and micro-enterprises.

Mr. Xie cited the example of OneConnect, an associate of Ping An Group, the largest technology-as-a-service cloud platform for financial institutions in China. As of the end of June 2020, OneConnect facilitated 2 trillion transactions for customers of other financial institutions, including 171.5 million anti-fraud checks and 5.2 billion credit risk assessments. As of the end of June 2020, OneConnect had served 100% of major banks, 99% of city commercial banks and 53% of insurance companies in China, collectively reaching hundreds of millions of end-customers.

Mr. Xie said, "To empower the industry 'from 1 to N' requires leading enterprises to have not only highly professional, applicable and stable fintech capabilities, but also requires the capabilities to be modular and scalable in order to empower other financial firms."

About Ping An Group

Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd. ("Ping An") is a world-leading technology-powered retail financial services group. With over 210 million retail customers and 560 million Internet users, Ping An is one of the largest financial services companies in the world.

Ping An has two over-arching strategies, "pan financial assets" and "pan health care", which focus on the provision of financial and healthcare services through our integrated financial services platform and our five ecosystems of financial services, health care, auto services, real estate services and smart city services. Our "finance + technology" and "finance + ecosystem" strategies aim to provide customers and internet users with innovative and simple products and services using technology. As China's first joint stock insurance company, Ping An is committed to upholding the highest standards of corporate reporting and corporate governance. The Group is listed on the stock exchanges in Hong Kong and Shanghai.

In 2020, Ping An ranked 7^th in the Forbes Global 2000 list and ranked 21^st in the Fortune Global 500 list. Ping An also ranked 38^th in the 2020 WPP Kantar Millward Brown BrandZ^TM Top 100 Most Valuable Global Brands list. For more information, please visit www.pingan.cn.