On August 21, Bank of China internally announced an organizational structure adjustment plan for the personal finance line.

According to the plan, Bank of China plans to adjust the original four departments of the personal finance line: Personal Finance Department, Wealth Management and Private Banking Department, Internet Finance Department, and Bank Card Center into personal digital finance. Department, Consumer Finance Department, and Credit Card Center*** 3 departments.

This will be the first personal digital finance department in the banking industry, which will consist of two secondary departments: the Digital Finance Center and the Private Banking Center.

In terms of personnel, Liu Min, the former general manager of the Wealth Management and Private Banking Department, will serve as the general manager of the Personal Digital Finance Department, and Guo Weimin, the former general manager of the Internet Finance Department, will serve as the chief scientist of the Bank of China.

Through the adjustment of organizational structure, Bank of China has taken a big step forward. The key words are digitalization and consumer finance.

In the process of promoting change, it is often difficult for financial institutions to break through the barriers of departmental interests. This time, Bank of China integrated the three original departments and established the Personal Digital Finance Department, which is a bold attempt.

Not just the financial industry. At the end of September last year, in order to accelerate the promotion of to B business, Tencent launched the third strategic structure adjustment in the company's history.

What needs to be pointed out is that it is easy to shout slogans, and it is not that difficult to adjust the organizational structure, but the road to deep organizational change and business transformation will be long and difficult.

The Bank of China really needs to speed up the pace of change. In the competition with the other three major banks, Bank of China lags behind and is at the bottom in market value. If it does not rise up, its market value will soon be overtaken by China Merchants Bank.

The most noteworthy thing is the Personal Digital Finance Department, a super large new department that encompasses the main businesses of the original three departments: Personal Finance Department, Wealth Management and Private Banking Department, and Internet Finance Department. .

Compared with online finance, digital finance is a more accurate and more representative concept of the future. In fact, some people in the industry have long proposed that the Internet Finance Department will be a transitional product.

This is consistent with the "technology leadership" proposed by Bank of China in recent years: injecting technological elements into the entire business process and all fields to create the ultimate user experience, rich scene ecology, online and offline collaboration, and flexible product innovation , a digital bank with efficient operation management and intelligent risk control.

What can be expected is that Bank of China has officially established online channels as the focus of personal finance development, and the importance of mobile banking has been further highlighted.

According to the Bank of China’s 2018 annual report, the number of active customers and transaction volume of the bank’s mobile banking basically doubled last year. As of the end of last year, the number of Bank of China mobile banking customers reached 145 million, a year-on-year increase of 26%; the transaction volume last year reached 20.03 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 82.68%.

The removal of the wealth management and private banking department and the integration of the relatively leading private banking business in the market into the personal digital finance department is likely to cause some controversy.

But from another perspective, Bank of China does not have a dedicated private banking department. Under the new Ministry of Personal Digital Finance, the Private Banking Center is two secondary departments alongside the Digital Finance Center, and their status remains prominent.

Among the major commercial banks, Bank of China should be the first to set up a separate consumer finance department.

According to the organizational information disclosed in the 2018 financial reports of each bank, in the retail business line, ICBC has set up a personal financial business department, a bank card business department (Peony Card Center), an Internet finance department, a private Banking Department; China Construction Bank has set up a Personal Finance Department, Wealth Management and Private Banking Department, Housing Finance and Personal Credit Department, Credit Card Center, and Internet Finance Department; Agricultural Bank of China has set up a Credit Card Center, Private Banking Department, Personal Finance Department, Internet Finance Department, and Personal Finance Department. Credit Department.

The Consumer Finance Department of Bank of China will most likely inherit the personal loan business of the former Personal Finance Department.

According to the official website of Bank of China, its personal loan business has 21 products, including housing mortgage loans (provident fund loans), car loans, personal business loans, personal credit loans, and Bank of China E loans, personal network revolving loans and other new products.

What is currently uncertain is whether the consumer finance department will include home loans and car loans.

Because according to the general definition of consumer finance, home loans and car loans do not belong to consumer finance.

The Bank of China's 2018 financial report mentioned: accelerating the development of consumer finance business, in-depth application of Internet and big data technology, optimizing and improving risk management and control models, and continuing to promote the flagship product "Bank of China E-Loan" full-process online consumer loan services , and maintain a rapid growth rate.

As a personal online consumer loan product of Bank of China, Bank of China E-Loan provides full-process online credit consumer loan services to Bank of China’s payroll customers, wealth private banking customers, and mortgage customers. The amount can be up to 300,000 yuan.

The Bank of China has adjusted its bank card center to a credit card center, which is a long-overdue change.

Prior to this, ICBC, China Construction Bank and Agricultural Bank of China had established credit card centers very early, and credit card centers have become standard equipment for joint-stock banks and even some city commercial banks.

What is less known is that Bank of China is a pioneer in China’s credit card market. In 1985, Bank of China Zhuhai Branch established my country's first credit card operating company, Zhuhai Credit Card Co., Ltd., and issued the country's first credit card, Bank of China Card. In 1986, Bank of China issued the first domestic general-purpose card. Credit card - Great Wall Card.

However, in the tide of credit card development in recent years, Bank of China's ranking in the market has been steadily declining. Not only does it lag behind ICBC and China Construction Bank, but it is also likely to be overtaken by Agricultural Bank of China. It is on par with China Merchants Bank and Bank of Communications. Comparative disadvantages are also expanding.

Data show that as of the end of last year, the cumulative number of credit cards issued by Bank of China was 110.6573 million, lower than ICBC and China Construction Bank; the credit card consumption amount was 1.619555 billion yuan, not even among the top ten in the industry; the balance of credit card loans was 426.338 billion yuan yuan, ranking ninth in the industry.

The potential and value of the credit card business cannot be underestimated. For example, last year, the credit card business revenue of China Merchants Bank reached 66.7 billion yuan, accounting for more than half of its total retail business revenue.

In the credit card battle, Bank of China must win back.

Among the major banks, Bank of China was the first to establish an Internet Finance Department and the first to abolish the Internet Finance Department.

In March 2014, the Bank of China Head Office abolished the Electronic Banking Department and established the Internet Finance Department. All the online banking, mobile phone business and other businesses of the Electronic Banking Department were transferred to the newly established Channel Management Department. The Internet Finance Department is mainly responsible for the electronic banking department. Business and other Internet financial innovation businesses.

Looking back, "e-commerce and other Internet financial innovation businesses" is obviously an immature term, but under the circumstances at that time, it represented the banking industry's mainstream understanding of new finance.

However, there are actually traces of the cancellation of the Internet Finance Department of Bank of China.

At the end of 2018, Bank of China took the lead among major state-owned banks to establish a transaction banking department. This department was integrated and established on the basis of the original trade and finance department, and integrated the cash management functions of the original corporate department and the corporate functions of the Internet Finance Department. Internet financial functions.

It is worth mentioning that Wanglian President Dong Junfeng previously served as deputy general manager of the Internet Finance Department of Bank of China.

In this adjustment, the Bank of China established the position of chief scientist, which is also a pioneer in the traditional banking industry.

Another similar example is that WeBank hired Yang Qiang, a well-known scientist in the field of international artificial intelligence, as chief artificial intelligence officer (CAIO) this year.