Ant Financial Services Group (“Ant Financial” or “the Company”) today announced that the Company will share a full suite of AI capabilities with asset management companies in China to support their digital transformation.
Following its successful launch last year, Caifuhao, an AI-powered corporate account on the Ant Fortune platform, has brought tangible benefits to 27 fund management companies.
“By combining Ant Financial’s AI technologies with the capabilities of asset management companies in investor education and fund management, together we are making customized wealth management services more accessible for ordinary users,” said Eric Jing, Executive Chairman and CEO of Ant Financial.
With the support of AI-powered services offered by their Caifuhao account, including operational optimization, content generation, compliance and risk management, 27 fund management companies have been able to increase their operational efficiency by 70% while reducing their overall costs by 50%. Additional benefits include a 10-fold increase in the number of daily visitors, a three-fold increase in the amount invested by returning customers, and an 89% increase in the holding period among all investors. Asset management companies that have set up a Caifuhao account include Minsheng Royal Fund Management Co., Ltd., China Asset Management Co., Ltd., and Bank of Communications Schroder Fund Management Co., Ltd.
In the past, asset management companies in China lacked sufficient insights into their customers as well as cost-effective channels to reach them, limiting the ability of these companies to provide value-added services such as investor education and customized wealth management products. Launched in 2017, AI-powered Caifuhao corporate accounts on the Ant Fortune platform provide fund managers with a channel to better connect and engage with users to build their own brands.
“China’s asset management industry is experiencing an incredible digital transformation, with customer service becoming increasingly more important than sales functions,” said Guoming Zu, Vice President of Ant Financial's Wealth Management Business Group, at the Ant Fortune Partners Summit held in Beijing on June 19, 2018. “With our proven track record of supporting financial institutions, Ant Financial is ready to share a full suite of AI capabilities with ecosystem partners in the asset management industry.”
More than 100 asset management companies have signed up to join the Ant Fortune platform since its inception in 2015, representing over 90% of all fund management companies in China. This has resulted in more than 4,000 wealth management products being made available to tens of millions of individual Ant Fortune users.
Sharing technological capabilities that allow other businesses to better serve customers has been part of Ant Financial’s DNA since the birth of Alipay in 2004. After opening up its payments services to a wide range of online and offline businesses, Ant Financial announced an “Internet Booster” plan in 2015 to support the digital transformation of traditional financial institutions by sharing Ant Financial’s technological capabilities.
In recent months, Ant Financial has accelerated its pace of opening up its technological capabilities to financial institutions. Banks including Huaxia Bank, China Everbright Bank, Shanghai Pudong Development Bank, China CITIC Bank, and Bank of Tianjin have signed strategic cooperation agreements with Ant Financial to support the banks’ digital transformation.