Nine Trigrams | Bacera Bank ushered in a new president, and Kou Guan took over

Source | The Economic Observer

Recently, according to many sources, Li Rudong, the former president of CITIC Baixin Bank (hereinafter referred to as "Baixin Bank"), has left his post and will be replaced by Vice President Kou Guan (pictured below). This personnel change indicates that Baixin Bank will enter a new stage of accelerated development of digital and intelligent construction.

Since its establishment in 2017, Bacera Bank has made significant progress in terms of business scale, asset quality and profitability through the innovative practice of digital finance, relying on its positioning as an "AI-driven digital inclusive bank" and the characteristic advantages of shareholder synergy between China CITIC Bank and Baidu, and gradually increasing its market influence. Bacera Bank has always maintained a leading position in the industry in fintech integration, and has achieved business scale growth by continuously optimizing its "cloud-based, agile, intelligent and secure" fintech core capabilities, and has demonstrated good performance in asset quality, profitability and risk control.

Under the current accelerated transformation of financial digitalization, Bacera Bank's innovation and exploration not only provides a practical case for digital finance to reshape the banking industry, but also actively explores the future banking business model. With Kou Guan succeeding Li Rudong as president, how will Bacera Bank further leverage its first-mover advantage in the field of financial technology, deepen its digital intelligence capabilities and technological innovation, and promote the in-depth development of digital inclusive finance?

Pioneer in digital banking

Since its establishment, Bacera Bank has been committed to creating an innovative development path that is different from the traditional banking industry.

Fang Heying, then Executive Director and Vice President of China CITIC Bank (currently Chairman of China CITIC Bank), said in the bank's 2018 annual report, "We hope that CITIC Baixin Bank can embark on a path of innovation and development that is different from that of traditional banks, and we also hope that its exploration in areas such as financial technology can bring more inspiration and support to the bank's future development." ”

As of the end of 2023, Baixin Bank achieved total assets of 112.511 billion yuan, an increase of 16.08% from the end of the previous year, and total liabilities increased to 104.177 billion yuan, an increase of 16.42% from the end of the previous year. In terms of user base, the total number of users exceeded 98.35 million, an increase of 17.66%, demonstrating the extensiveness of its service reach and the enhancement of user stickiness. In terms of profitability, the net operating income reached 4.534 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 14.27%, and the net profit was 855 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 30.25%, showing a steady and progressive development trend as a whole.

In terms of asset quality, as of the end of 2023, the non-performing loan ratio of Baixin Bank decreased to 1.36%, down 0.12 percentage points year-on-year, demonstrating its good risk management capabilities, while the provision coverage ratio increased to 303.76%, an increase of 1.66 percentage points from the beginning of the year, further enhancing its ability to resist risks. The return on equity increased to 10.84%, an increase of 1.62 percentage points year-on-year, indicating that the efficiency of capital utilization has been significantly improved.

The steady growth of Bacera Bank's performance is a direct reflection of its digital and intelligent innovation-driven development strategy. With the two-wheel drive of "finance + Internet", Bacera Bank has focused on providing strong technical support for business development by building leading digital financial capabilities since its establishment. Bacera Bank has been shortlisted for the People's Bank of China Fintech Regulatory Sandbox Project for three consecutive times, which not only represents the recognition of its innovative practices by the financial regulators, but also reflects its technical strength and compliance awareness. In addition, Bacera Bank has won the People's Bank of China Fintech Development Award for four consecutive years and KPMG China's Top 50 Leading Fintech Enterprises for six consecutive years, which is not only an affirmation of Bacera Bank's exploration achievements in the field of FinTech, but also a direct reflection of its market influence.

It is worth noting that Bacera Bank has ranked among the top in the industry in terms of per capita invention patent applications for two consecutive years, which not only highlights the innovation ability of its technology R&D team, but also lays a technical foundation for its subsequent development, further consolidating its leading position in the field of digital banking.

In terms of equity structure, Baixin Bank has completed two capital increases and share expansions since its establishment, and the registered capital has increased from the initial 2 billion yuan to 5.634 billion yuan. Presently. China CITIC Bank, Baidu Inc. and Canada Pension Fund hold 65.70%, 26.03% and 8.27% of the shares, respectively.

The new president's scientific and technological background

Kou Guan is a senior expert in the field of banking technology, with a deep background in the technology department of large state-owned banks and joint-stock banks, and has accumulated extensive practical experience and management skills in the construction of banking application systems, big data applications, IT governance structure optimization, and digital operation management. With the departure of Li Rudong and the succession of Kou Guan, the future development of Bacera Bank has attracted much attention from the market.

Prior to joining Bacera Bank, Kou Guan worked in the information technology line and electronic banking line of China Construction Bank. In August 2017, Kou Guan was appointed as Vice President and Chief Information Officer of Baixin Bank, and in March 2019, he was seconded to China CITIC Bank to serve as General Manager of Information Technology Management Department, and in June 2022, he was appointed as General Manager of Technology Operation Center of China CITIC Bank.

During his secondment to China CITIC Bank, Kou Guan led the team to successfully promote the institution's agile organizational transformation represented by the reform of the domain system, and established the Chengdu R&D sector of full-time service branches, making the integration of industry, technology and data a core weapon for technology to support, drive and empower the high-quality development of the business, achieving a three-fold increase in the overall production capacity of science and technology, reducing the average delivery time by 11.7 working days (34.5% faster), and reducing the annual production defect density of 100 people by 87%.

In addition, Kou Guan led the team to win a total of 25 awards in the People's Bank of China's Fintech Development Awards. China CITIC Bank has become the first joint-stock bank to win the first prize of the Fintech Development Award twice in the past three years. As of the end of 2023, the number of technology patent filings filed by China CITIC Bank has increased 40-fold in the past five years, and its ranking among joint-stock banks has quickly risen from a low position to second place. In 2023, China CITIC Bank achieved the best results in its history in the technology regulatory rating, ranking second among joint-stock banks and third in the overall ranking of large state-owned banks and joint-stock banks.

With the succession of the new President Kou Guan, Bacera Bank is expected to continue to deepen its strategic positioning of "Finance + Internet", rely on the core capabilities and shareholder resources of digital and intelligent finance, expand the application boundaries of digital finance, and help promote the high-quality digital development of the banking industry.

Bacera Bank is standing at a new starting point, and whether its development model can succeed will need to withstand the market test for a longer time. In the future, with the continuous application of digital technology in the financial field and the rapid iteration of market demand, Bacera Bank is expected to continue to make more breakthroughs on the road of digital finance and explore more beneficial paths for the transformation and development of China's banking industry.