UBS is still waiting for the green light for a promising project in the Chinese mass market. Licensing process, which still stops the China digital bank from entering the market, is difficult to predict, he said. The big bank even has a plan B now, should the license be denied: the digital project would then be integrated into the existing business. The bank does not want to snub the Chinese supervisory authority with brash announcements. One reason for this could be the surprising suspension of the mega IPO of the Chinese fintech Ant Financial.
Fintechs are facing a tougher wind in the People’s Republic. Increased requirements regarding regulation could lead to many neobanks leaning on established big banks in the next five years. One such established player would be UBS. With its Chinese digital bank, the Swiss want to target the rapidly growing middle class there, people with $100,000 to $200,000 in assets. Unlike local digital banks such as WeBank, Mybank or Aibank, UBS is attracting people with an internationally oriented investment portfolio. With this, it hopes to increase the number of wealth management clients in Asia from 30,000 to 200,000 and massively reduce acquisition costs.