Endorsed by the Presidential Office Meeting of PKU, The institute of Digital Finance of Peking University (IDF)  was established in October 2015. Currently it is affiliated to the National School of Development (NSD) at PKU.

IDF is committed to carrying out academic research in the realms of digital finance, inclusive finance, financial reforms, etc., providing authoritative results of scientific research for the society, theoretical guidance for the development of relevant industries as well as scientific reference for the decision-making process of the government. Prof.Qiang Li, Director of the Institute of Social Science Survey (ISSS), is the Chairman of IDF Council; Prof.Yiping Huang, Deputy Dean of National School of Development (NSD), is the Director of the IDF, and Haiming Wang, Executive President of SFI, Prof. Zhuo Huang and Prof. Yan Shen from NSD, are the Deputy Directors. The Academic Committee is in charge of the management of academic affairs under the authorization of the Executive Council. IDF has more than 20 full-time and part-time researchers.

Since the foundation of IDF, researchers have independently or jointly developed and published four indexes of internet finance. Besides, a number of in-depth research projects have been launched on the use of digital technology to advance the development of inclusive finance, the construction of personal credit reporting systems, strategies for commercial banks to cope with internet finance, risks of Peer-to-Peer Lending platforms, and big data. IDF has published dozens of research papers and given lectures on internet finance at the NSD. IDF supported China Economic Journal in publishing a monograph on internet finance in 2016.In addition, IDF has published several books, including Twelve Lectures on Internet Finance, Chinese Practice of Digital inclusive Finance, Financial Technology in China:12 lectures of Digital Finance and Ant Financial: From Alipay to New Finance Ecology, in the IDF New Finance book series.

IDF regularly holds activities on important issues of digital finance and inclusive finance such as policy seminars and the Peking University Digital Finance Forum, which provides a platform of communication for academics, industry practitioners as well as policy makers. Each year, IDF holds academic conferences and publishes research findings including the annual research reports and internet finance indexes. Apart from the research team of IDF, officials from “One Bank (PBOC) and Three Commissions (CSRC, CBRC and CIRC)”, university scholars and industry representatives also participate in the annual academic conference.

Based on a large number of corporate research, researchers of IDF also actively participate in relevant policy study and consultation such as the regulation of Peer-to-Peer lending and the agenda of promoting inclusive finance with digital finance advocated by the PBOC under the G20 framework.