Blockchain application and outlook in the banking industry

Blockchain technology is a core,underlying technology with promising application prospects in the banking industry.On one hand,the banking industry in China is facing the impact of interest rate liberalization and profit decline caused by the narrowing interest-rate spread.On the other hand,it is also affected by economic transformation,Internet development,and financial innovations.Hence,the banking industry requires urgent transformation and is seeking new growth avenues.As such,blockchains could revolutionize the underlying technology of the payment clearing and credit information systems in banks,thus upgrading and transforming them.Blockchain applications also promote the formation of“multi-center,weakly intermediated”scenarios,which will enhance the efficiency of the banking industry.However,despite the permissionless and self-governing nature of blockchains,the regulation and actual implementation of a decentralized system are problems that remain to be resolved.Therefore,we propose the urgent establishment of a“regulatory sandbox”and the development of industry standards.

FinTech in Taiwan:a case study of a Bank’s strategic planning for an investment in a FinTech company

Introduction:Since 2015 is the year of FinTech in Taiwan,it is worth investigating the challenges that emerged when banks were encouraged to invest in FinTech companies for collaboration.This study aims to identify the strategic considerations in the process of searching for FinTech investment targets.Case description:This study used a case study investigation of a top-5 bank in Taiwan.The major data sources include the meeting notes of the FinTech investment task force and interviews with the team members.Co-opetition theory was adopted as the theoretical framework and interview questions were derived from the PARTS strategies in co-petition theory.The results relate to:(1)the strategic goals of FinTech investment,(2)the added value from FinTech companies,(3)criteria in selecting candidates in the same FinTech area,(4)choosing to work as either a cooperator or a competitor,and(5)barriers from policies and regulations.Discussion and evaluation:This study has several findings:(1)regulations and policies shape FinTech’s development;(2)banks,technology companies,and customers are not“FinTech ready;”(3)Compare top-down with bottom up strategies;(4)banks and FinTech companies have complex relationships;(5)it is unlikely that Taiwan will produce FinTech disruptors in the near future.Conclusion:The findings and discussion can benefit researchers and administrators in finance-related industries.More studies are desired to observe long-term development in terms of how companies collaborate or compete in specific FinTech areas.

Fintech investments in European banks:a hybrid IT2 fuzzy multidimensional decision‑making approach

Financial technology(Fintech)makes a significant contribution to the financial system by reducing costs,providing higher quality services and increasing customer satisfaction.Hence,new studies play an essential role to improve Fintech investments.This study evaluates Fintech-based investments of European banking services with an application of an original methodology that considers interval type-2(IT2)fuzzy decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory and IT2 fuzzy TOPSIS models.Empirical findings are controlled for consistency by applying the VIKOR method.Moreover,we conduct a sensitivity analysis by considering six distinct cases.This study contributes to the existing literature by identifying the most important Fintech-based investment alternatives to improve the financial performance of European banks.Our empirical findings illustrate that results are coherent,reliable,and identify“competitive advantage”as the most important factor among Fintech-based determinants.Moreover,“payment and money transferring systems”are the most important Fintech-based investment alternatives.It is recommended that,among Fintech-based investments,European banks should mainly focus on payment and money transferring alternatives to attract the attention of customers and satisfy their expectations.This is also believed to have a positive impact on the ease of bank’receivable collection.Another important point is that Fintech-based investments in money transferring systems could help to decrease costs.

Discussion on Consumer Credit Business of Traditional Commercial Banks under Internet Finance

With the advent and development of the information age,the Internet has become the current advancement in all walks of life.The popularization of e-commerce also gives birth to Internet finance.The emergence of consumer credit businesses such as“Yu‘ebao”and“Huabei”has put great pressure on the consumer credit business of traditional commercial Banks.Under the background of Internet finance,in order to promote the development of commercial Banks’consumer credit business,it is necessary to strengthen the innovation of commercial Banks’consumer credit business and meet the development demand of the current information age.

Assessing Market Competition in the Chinese Banking Industry Based on a Conjectural Variation Model

Most literature on market competition in the banking industry neglects to address strategic interaction among banks.This paper studies interaction among Chinese banks by dividing banks into two groups:dominant banks(the"Big 5f,state-owned banks)and small-and medium-sized banks(joint-stock banks and large city commercial banks).We test an oligopolistic model with conjectural variation developed by Spiller and Favaro(1984).Using data from 2007 to 2016,we find that banking competition is not in the form of Stackelberg competition per se.Some strategic interactions exist between small-and medium-sized banks and the largest state-owned bank.We also study the effect of interest rate deregulation on oligopolies'strategic interactions.Our results show that interest rate deregulation stimulates banking competition by reducing collusiveness among the dominant state-owned banks and enhancing the market power of small and medium banks.