This case describes multiple open banking initiatives made by China Construction Bank, ShenZhen (CCB-SZ) between 2016 and 2018 in an effort to remain competitive in the retail customer market against online financial services provided by big tech companies such as BATJ (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, and JingDong), in China. In particular, CCB-SZ was facing severe competition from mobile payment technologies provided by Alipay and WeChat Pay in individuals' and SMEs' payment markets, which were traditionally underserved by incumbent banks. With new regulations enacted in 2016 to encourage incumbent banks to provide online financial services to individuals and SMEs, especially through mobile phones, CCB-SZ made a number of efforts to regain some of the lost territory, including utilizing its long-term relationship with large enterprises as a bridge to reach their customers, collaborating with existing and popular apps, and being creative in terms of offering innovative payment services and redesigning the corresponding business process. Its open banking strategy was to break down its financial services into smaller units and embed them into customers' daily financial needs, wherever and whenever they arose. Such efforts put CCB-SZ back on the playing field of mobile payment, as it was able to catch up with nonbank mobile payment solutions and maintain a similar growth rate after 2016. However, the nonbank payment providers had multiple advantages over incumbent banks, such as better technology, more data, a larger customer base, and less regulation. Hence, the future of incumbent banks' open banking strategy remained unclear.

After initial success, China Construction Bank, Shen Zhen (CCB-SZ) continued its open banking journey by building a more integrated open banking platform in 2019. The platform enabled integration of e-accounts, consolidated payments, contactless payments, a credit card manager, a fee calculator, and other management functions for its open banking projects. CCB-SZ also continued expanding into more service areas, including smart city, smart medical platform, consumer rights, supply chain loans, SMEs quick loan approval, etc. Despite these efforts and achievements, the overall development of open banking projects by CCB-SZ was not able to maintain an upward trajectory, partly due to the regulatory limits that PBOC (the People's Bank of China or central bank) placed on the e-accounts that incumbent banks are allowed to offer to their customers. Meanwhile, BATJ (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, and JingDong) and fintech companies continued advancing into the financial sector. To secure its position in the mobile payment markets, CCB actively sought out other strategies such as creating separate entities that focused on fintech; digitalization of the entire backend operation; and cultivating technical manpower. These efforts allowed CCB-SZ to respond quickly to the COVID-19 pandemic by offering many new financial services online, such as "green pass quick loan", "smart community", and "grocery shopping."

There has been a growing interest in fintech companies in recent years. The case describes how Privé Technologies has grown from a fintech startup to gain a firm foothold in Hong Kong and become a leading innovator in the financial and wealth management industries. The company was co-founded by Charles Wong and Julian Schillinger in 2011. The company uses modules similar to Lego building blocks to enable financial institutions to meet their customers' needs throughout the wealth management process, from customer onboarding, portfolio construction and recommendation to portfolio reporting and execution. With more than 100 staff and 6 offices in Asia and Europe, Privé has served over 60 financial institutions and its system has been used by over 3,000 financial advisors. This case study sheds light on how a fintech startup in Hong Kong can cope with different challenges and how to search and grasp growth opportunities and sell their products and services effectively.

Neat, a fintech company based in Hong Kong, launched its first account in 2016 and has grown up over the years. The company now mainly serves startups and SMEs (small and medium enterprises) by offering credit cards, payment collection, remittance services and startup-tailored solutions. After the outbreak of COVID-19, many countries introduced travel restrictions, lock-down and social distancing measures which gave online businesses including Neat significant growth opportunities. Having successfully secured a US$11 million Series A funding in April and a further US$4 million in August 2020, David Rosa, CEO and co-founder of Neat, is contemplating the next stage of expansion. Should Neat focus on developing new products and services or on expanding the market reach and target developing countries or developed countries? The case describes the business details of Neat, including company background, its products and services on offer and the different options available for its future development. The case helps students understand the different stages of corporate growth and the status quo of fintech companies in Asia. It provides a learning opportunity for students to analyze and discuss different growth strategies, and they will learn the different business environments fintech companies are facing in developing countries and developed countries.