Can the Internet Revolutionise Finance in China?

Abstract

The Chinese term for ‘internet finance’ was coined by Ping Xie and Chuanwei Zou (2012) at the 2012 Annual Conference of the China Finance 40 Forum. It now enjoys a place in public discourse alongside such phrases as ‘digital finance’ and ‘fintech’, which are often used outside China. The context for the use of ‘internet finance’, however, is somewhat richer, as internet finance can refer to both information technology (IT) companies providing financial services, such as WeChatPay, and financial institutions applying IT to their more traditional services, such as the e-ICBC service of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China