ICBC Chairman Yi Huiman: ICBC blockchain application is expected to be launched this year

At the ICBC 2016 annual performance press conference held at 6:30 pm on March 30, ICBC Chairman Yi Huiman said that ICBC's research, development and application of blockchain technology is going very smoothly and is expected to be put into practical application this year. In addition, ICBC has also completed the system construction of a prototype of a financial product trading platform based on blockchain technology. This system provides customers with point-to-point financial asset transfer and trading services based on the traditional trading model, and is expected to be launched soon.

ICBC may realize blockchain technology application this year

Yi Huiman: With the development of financial technology, including the application of new technologies such as big data, artificial intelligence, and blockchain, traditional banking technology has brought great challenges. In an era of change, if we cannot fully grasp it, the future development and competition of banks will be in a very passive position. Technology also plays a very important supporting role in promoting the transformation and development of ICBC. There are mainly three aspects.

First, we attach great importance to the research and development of cutting-edge technologies and technical reserves. We have established seven innovation laboratories at the head office, including artificial intelligence, cloud computing, blockchain, biometrics, big data and Internet finance innovation laboratories. There are nearly 500 people in our seven laboratories, who have been engaged in cutting-edge technology research.

We will further adjust and improve the IT structure according to changes in the situation, build a more open, flexible and powerful technical architecture, carry out loosely coupled product transformation, and create an excellent technical platform for rapid innovation, iterative development and distributed deployment. This is also one of our key tasks.

Second, we attach great importance to the actual application or trial of these new technologies. For example, in the field of big data, we are the first in the industry to develop a big data anti-fraud system. You may have noticed that we have successfully intercepted more than 110,000 telecom fraud remittances, preventing domestic and foreign customers from losing 1.6 billion yuan in funds.

In the field of artificial intelligence, we have put into production a new generation of intelligent robots. We have used them internally and have greatly improved the intelligence level of telephone banking.

Our fingerprint recognition system, including facial recognition technology, is also developing. Fingerprint technology has been used in mobile banking customer recognition. The research on facial recognition technology is relatively fast and mature, and has begun to be used as an auxiliary recognition technology in some branches.

Our research and development of blockchain technology is going very smoothly, and we expect to put it into practical use this year. We have completed the system construction of a prototype of a financial product trading platform based on blockchain technology. This system provides customers with peer-to-peer financial asset transfer and trading services based on the traditional trading model, and we expect to be able to meet you soon.

We have participated in the issuance of the central bank's digital currency and the research on the blockchain-based digital bill trading platform. Now the overall participation and progress are very good.

Third, in terms of application, ICBC has released versions 1.0 and 2.0 of eICBC. From the current overall use, it should be said that it is still very good. For example, the terminal is mobile, payment is convenient and scenario-based, financing is convenient, financial management is online, and customer delivery is convenient. These are the rules of Internet finance, especially what young customers and future customers are more concerned about.

We are building a more advanced eICBC service model for ICBC, which we temporarily call the smart bank system. We will follow the development law of technology finance, pay more attention to the ultimate service of products, pay more attention to the combination with scenarios, and pay more attention to cooperation with third parties. With an open and cooperative attitude, we will also hold a more convenient and secure guiding ideology, so that our smart bank can further enhance the Internet finance, especially the technology finance customer acquisition and retention capabilities.