China is at the forefront of financial technological innovations that include mobile payment and artificial intelligence (AI), according to industry watchers at the SWIFT International Banker's Operation Seminar, or Sibos, in Beijing.
The four-day Sibos 2024 financial conference concluded on Thursday.
The theme of this year's conference was "Connecting the Future of Finance," with discussion that focused on the digital transformations shaping the industry.
Experts in attendance said China is at the forefront of adopting certain areas of fintech innovations such as mobile payment.
"I think the estimate is that in the next few years, the domestic mobile payment will already exceed 100 trillion U.S. dollars in the next few years," said David Chan, managing director and partner of Boston Consulting Group.
Another area of focus is called embedded finance, which integrates financial services directly into non-financial platforms or applications, such as shopping and travel apps.
The approach allows businesses to seamlessly offer services like payments, loans, insurance and investment options within their existing user experiences.
Most of the services leverage insights from collected customer data to provide tailored financial solutions.
"Also leveraging on the data to do better risk management so that they can actually allow more SMEs, more underbanked populations to be able to access funding," said Chan.
China is also leading in the research and adoption of generative AI, including chatbots that use large language models, or LLMs, to simulate real human communication.
"Even the foundational LLM is at the developing stage, but many of the global banks and insurance companies have been active in adopting use cases which are at the forefront, for example, I think these customer enablement, customer service, call centers," said Nicole Zhou, senior partner of McKinsey and Company.
However, combining AI with financial services is still at an early stage. Experts suggest for the financial industry to fully harness the power of AI, a deeper shift in the operating models of institutions is necessary, but this is expected to take time.
China takes lead in fintech innovations: experts
The death toll from the nightclub collapse in the Dominican Republic's capital Santo Domingo has reached 225, with several victims succumbing to their injuries at hospitals this Saturday.
The tragic incident occurred in the early hours of Tuesday during a concert by merengue singer Rubby Perez at the Jet Set nightclub, and the singer was among those killed in the incident, his manager said. His funeral, attended by President Luis Abinader and Latin music icon Juan Luis Guerra, took place on Thursday.
Among the victims, the tragedy took a particularly devastating toll on "Los Dorados," a close-knit group of seniors from the town of Haina who had gathered that night to celebrate decades of friendship.
Seventeen members of "Los Dorados" were at the club, joined by Perez, who also grew up in Haina and had returned to perform for longtime friends.
"It felt like an explosion, a horrifying blast. I didn't walk out. I was hurled outside by the force, thrown like the wind. My friend, I thought she was crushed, broken, because she emerged covered in water and blood. You could hear people wailing, crying for help. My sister was in there," said Ofelia Roy, a survivor of the blast.
Roy was the one who noticed warning signs before the collapse.
"I went to talk to security, told them pieces of the ceiling were falling, that the roof was peeling off. He brushed it off. But it wasn't normal at all. It had started peeling in the morning, and they had been sweeping up the debris. And then, when I turned to check if my sister was behind me, right then, the explosion came," she said.
The collapse also took away three family members' lives of Domingo Guillen, another member of the "Los Dorados."
"At Jet Set, they were going to honor Rubby Perez. But also, my sister was celebrating her birthday. Since she was one of us, he dedicated the party to her, to all of us. I lost two siblings and my brother-in-law," he said.
Jet Set is a popular nightclub in Santo Domingo that regularly hosts dance music concerts on Monday evenings.
Luis Abinader, President of the Dominican Republic, on Tuesday declared three days of national mourning to honor the victims, while an investigation to determine the cause of the deadly collapse is already underway.
Death toll in Dominican nightclub collapse reaches 225
