互聯網改寫中國金融版圖

The past year has brought significant disruption to China’s financial landscape, with internet heavyweights Alibaba and Tencent leading the charge into mobile payments, deposit-like savings products, and even fully fledged banking.

過去一年中，中國金融行業版圖發生了巨大變化。互聯網巨頭阿里巴巴(Alibaba)和騰訊(Tencent)帶頭進入了移動支付、類似吸收存款的儲蓄產品，乃至成熟的銀行業務領域。

Chinese policy makers have said that internet companies can play a positive role in enhancing customer service, spurring innovation and increasing competition in financial services.

中國的政策制定者曾指出，互聯網公司能夠在金融服務領域發揮提升客戶服務水平、激勵創新以及促進競爭等積極作用。

Competition began in mid-2013 with the launch of Yu’E Bao, an online money-market fund. Run by Alibaba, the financial services affiliate of ecommerce group, the fund offers cash on demand but also provides higher interest rates than those available on bank deposits.

新競爭始於2013年年中在線貨幣市場基金——餘額寶的問世。該基金由電子商務集團阿里巴巴旗下的金融服務子公司運營，向客戶提供所需的現金，同時利率也比銀行存款高。

Assets under management at Yu’E Bao reached Rmb599bn ($96bn) by the end of 2014, making it China’s largest money-market fund.

截至2014年底，餘額寶管理的資產達到了5990億元人民幣（合960億美元），成爲中國最大的貨幣市場基金。

Tencent Holdings, the gaming and social networking group, and Baidu Inc, the search provider, have also launched similar products.

中國遊戲和社交媒體集團騰訊控股(Tencent Holdings)以及搜索服務提供商百度(Baidu Inc)也推出了類似的產品。

In addition to higher yields, the money-market products have lured depositors away from traditional banks by integrating them with these companies’ mobile-payment services.

除了較高的收益率之外，貨幣市場產品還通過與各自運營商的移動支付服務結合在一起，將儲戶從傳統銀行吸引過來。

Customers can use their Yu’E Bao credit to make purchases on Alibaba’s Taobao and Tmall ecommerce platforms, as well as for paying credit card and utility bills. Alipay, Alibaba’s mobile-payment service, is also increasingly accepted at food shops.

用戶可以使用自己的餘額寶存款在阿里巴巴的電子商務平臺淘寶(Taobao)和天貓(Tmall)購物，也可以用來進行信用卡還款，繳納公用服務費。阿里巴巴的移動支付服務——支付寶(Alipay)也被越來越多的食品店接受。

Last year, taxi-hailing apps became the locus of a fierce battle for mobile-payments market share. Alibaba-backed Kuaidi Dache has vied with Tencent-backed Didi Dache for pole position. Meanwhile, Baidu haspurchased a stake in US car-hailing company Uber.

去年，打車應用成爲各方爭奪移動支付市場份額的核心戰場。阿里巴巴投資的快的打車(Kuaidi Dache)與騰訊投資的滴滴打車(Didi Dache)爭奪領先地位。與此同時，百度入股了美國打車軟件公司優步(Uber)。

Both Alibaba and Tencent spent tens of millions of dollars on hefty rebates to riders and drivers for paying taxi fares with Alipay and Tenpay, respectively, instead of cash.

阿里巴巴和騰訊分別向不用現金、而使用支付寶和財付通(Tenpay)結算出租車費的乘客和司機返還了數千萬美元。

Meanwhile, Tencent, which until recently had a minimal presence in ecommerce, has enhanced its popular WeChat instant messaging app to allow brands to sell products directly through their WeChat accounts, with payments processed by Tenpay.

與此同時，直到最近都在電子商務領域佔極小份額的騰訊，已經升級了其廣受歡迎的即時通訊應用微信(WeChat)，允許商家通過自己的微信賬號直接銷售產品，並通過財付通完成支付。

The final frontier is banking. China’s banking regulators last year approved 10 privately owned companies, including Alibaba and Tencent, to establish regional banks.

最後的待開墾之地是銀行業務領域。去年，中國銀行業監管機構批准10家民營企業（包括阿里巴巴和騰訊）設立地區性銀行。

A joint venture led by Tencent this month became thefirst bank to start operations under the pilot. Premier Li Keqiang attended the opening ceremony for WeBank, named after WeChat.

1月份，多方出資、騰訊牽頭成立的深圳前海微衆銀行（WeBank，隨微信之名）成爲首家在上述試點計劃下開業的銀行。中國總理李克強出席了該行啓動儀式。

Alibaba will partner with Fosun International, one of China’s largest private conglomerates, to form Zhejiang Internet Commerce Bank this year. Other companies including an airline, a pharmaceuticals producer and an auto-parts manufacturer are also participating in the pilot project.

今年，阿里巴巴將與中國最大的民營企業集團之一復星國際(Fosun International)合作籌建浙江網商銀行(Zhejiang Internet Commerce Bank)。其他多家公司也參與了試點計劃，其中包括一家航空公司、一家藥企以及一家汽車零部件製造商。

Policy makers want these companies to focus on lending to small, privately owned businesses and consumers, who have struggled to obtain loans from state-owned banks. There is also the potential for internet companies to draw on troves of user data to evaluate small borrowers’ credit risk.

政策制定者希望，這些公司能專注貸款給那些難從國有銀行獲得貸款的小微民營企業和消費者。互聯網公司還可以利用海量用戶數據評估小額貸款人的信用風險。

Even before the latest pilot, some lending had already occurred. In September 2013, Alibaba’s microfinance arm sold 10 tranches of securitised loans to investors. The deal did not require a banking licence because microfinance companies, which do not collect deposits, are licensed separately.

在這一最新試點計劃啓動之前，一些貸款業務已經開展。2013年9月，阿里巴巴旗下的小額貸款公司將10筆證券化貸款出售給投資者。此類交易不需要銀行執照，因爲不吸收存款的小額貸款公司可以單獨獲得許可。