Peking University’s Institute of Internet Finance is Formally Established

What role will Internet finance play in China’s future economic development? This is one of the questions that PKU’s Institute of Internet Finance (IIF) aims to address. On June 6, 2015, the IIF was formally established. The IIF is sponsored by two PKU Institutes, the Institute of Social Science Surveys (ISSS) and the Shanghai Finance Institute (SFI), and Ant Financial Services Group. The IIF’s research team mainly consists of professors from PKU’s National School of Development (NSD). The IIF aims to serve the development and regulation of the Internet finance through analysis of large quantities of data, including data provided by other Internet finance institutions. The IIF will then share its findings with the rest of the industry.

Ant Financial Services Group will provide the IIF with a floor space, where researchers have open access to a randomly selected and desensitized inventory of data. The group will also provide the IIF with coding for the development of their own applications, including for data exchanges and integration, data modeling and mining, and for a data output service platform. This work will be supervised by the IIF’s council of directors. Members of this council include Wang Haiming, Executive President of SFI, Chen Long, CSO of Ant Financial Services Group, and Li Qiang, Director of the ISSS, who will also chair the council. The Council also aims to enlist the support of other Internet finance institutions.

Prof. Huang Yiping, Vice President of NSD, is also the principal director of the IIF, and Wang Haiming deputy. Other members include Shen Yan, Xu Jianguo, Huang Zhuo (from the NSD), Kong Tao (from the ISSS), and other researchers currently studying at doctorate level. IIF plans to recruit several full-time postdoctoral researchers each year, in addition to researchers from the China Finance 40 Forum and Shanghai Finance Institute to serve as assistants. According to Prof. Huang, the IIF will focus on three main issues. First, to evaluate operational mechanisms of different Internet finance institutions; second, to glean an overview of the industry through study of various indices; and third, to study the impact and challenges that Internet finance brings to China’s macroeconomic policy making. The IIF will publish a range of research reports, academic papers, policy briefs, and Internet finance indices.

In recent years, the digital finance industry has prospered in China. An empty canvas with no guidelines to adhere to, it soon grasped the attention of the nation. The IDF is committed to maintaining this academic and political interest.

Background information:

The ISSS is an interdisciplinary research platform on social problems and current affairs in China. It boasts internationally revered research methods, rich experience, and broad scope, undergoing nationwide research projects. CF40 and its sister institute, the SFI, is one of the leading financial think tanks in China; adundant in academic output and digital finance industry resources. Ant Financial Services Group boasts vast quantities of data, advanced cloud computing, and advanced data processing techniques – a key player in the industry. The NSD is perhaps China’s top university think tank, owing to a wide-array of experienced professors. It has exerted significant influence in many fields, especially those concerning China’s economic development and reform. The cooperation between these institutions only enhances their listed attributes.