China has more than 1.5 billion mobile banking customers as of the end of 2017, while the five major state-owned banks, namely Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Agriculture Bank of China and Bank of Communications, altogether represent an aggregate over 900m customers.
Most Chinese banks’ retailing businesses have been actively promoting mobile banking apps among their customers. The end result is that many services traditionally delivered at the physical banks’ counters with long queues are now being done in few seconds through a mobile app. Banks become more efficient albeit hiring fewer employees.
Market researcher J.D.Power’s China fintech head told media that mobile banking is the one and only path for banks esp. retail banks. Traditionally they provide different and less-organized services on different, say provincial, level, and now with mobile banking put into practice, banks get to consolidate their otherwise cluttered service offerings.