China Citic Bank Corp has joined hands with search engine Baidu to launch a joint venture, called AiBank, with the aim of capitalizing on China’s growing fintech sector. AiBank is one among several tie-ups between an internet firm and a bank in China’s booming online finance market. Companies like Alibaba Group Holding and Tencent Holdings have already set up their own finance arms to offer a range of financial products including payment, wealth management and micro loans. AiBank will focus on lending to individuals and small businesses while leveraging big data and artificial intelligence to build new risk control models, Li Rudong, president of the new bank said at a launch event in Beijing. As much as 60 percent of the new bank’s employees will be technology staff.
