Bank of Beijing & ING announce joint venture to set up digital bank

Bank of Beijing will reportedly hold 49% of the stake and ING will hold remaining 51% in the new digital bank

Bank of Beijing has announced that it plans to establish a joint venture with ING bank NV to build a new digital banking entity. Both the companies will invest CNY 3 billion ($447 million) to set up digital bank which will be headquartered in China.

Bank of Beijing will reportedly hold 49% of the stake and ING will hold remaining 51% in the new digital bank. The Bank of Beijing may become China’s first commercial lender with a foreign major shareholder. It has got board approval and is waiting for regulatory approval. 

According to Asia Times, ING took a minority stake in Bank of Beijing by forming a strategic alliance in the year 2005. ING is currently holding 13.03% stake in Bank of Beijing, worth $2.7 billion. ING is also holding stakes in Kotak Mahindra Bank (India) and TMB (Thailand).

ING and Bank of Beijing joint venture intends to counter the growing threat of technology firms to revenue streams of banking firms. Technology firms like Alibaba and Tencent, from several years, are eating into margins of traditional banks and disrupting the market.

ING plans to double its wholesale banking clients in China and for this the company has started increasing investment in its mainland branches of China.

The JV will be benefitted with the experience of ING Bank in direct banking services and financial technology to set up a news digital banking brand.

Tech giants have beaten Chinese banks in innovation, customer experience and user interaction. Even the new technology firms are ahead of Chinese banks in the race.  

China is enabling international banks to access the market and Bank of Beijing and ING are proving to be the latest example of that.

For the record, Bank of Beijing is an urban commercial bank and Sino-foreign joint venture established in 1996. It has 600 branches and operates international branches in Hong Kong and Netherlands.