In terms of innovation and adoption, China has leapfrogged most global financial centers. As western financial services institutions continue to innovate incrementally, China’s technology leaders have already revolutionized many aspects of financial services, increasing the speed, sophistication and scale of the innovation cycle. But the Chinese dominance in financial services is driven – not by incumbent banks – but by leading domestic technology companies. These firms use “platform effects” to capture data and use it to personalize the customer experience, leverage operational efficiencies, and to provide new services, such as lending, insurance, investment and wealth management. The result tends to be better and more comprehensive customer experiences than traditional financial services players can offer.

The upcoming event Shenzhen meets Paradeplatz seeks to offer valuable insights into China’s unique, dynamic and rapidly evolving financial services ecosystem. It examines the drivers behind the explosive acceleration of the innovation cycle for Chinese financial services, and assesses the implications for Swiss and European operators. The event also explores avenues of collaboration and invites a better mutual understanding of the cultural norms