MYbank, a digital bank in China affiliated with Ant Group, presented its AI-driven banking solutions at the Singapore Fintech Festival 2025.
As AI adoption in banking rises, McKinsey’s Global Banking Annual Review 2025 estimates that banks’ overall cost base could fall by 15–20%.
In response, major banks are integrating AI to improve efficiency and reduce costs.
For example, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) is working with Microsoft to help staff draft and review loan documents, while Singapore’s UOB is using AI for anti-money-laundering, cutting the time needed to detect suspicious transactions by 60%.
MYbank has focused on embedding AI directly into core operations.
“Our experience shows that AI can extend high-quality and diverse financial services, previously hard to access, to everyday small and micro businesses, helping make finance more inclusive and fair,”
said Zheng Bo, General Manager of MYbank’s AI Department.
The bank has integrated AI in areas such as credit risk management and cash-flow forecasting, with systems improving through practical use.
Over the past decade, digital credit services have expanded financing access for small businesses: China’s SME loan balance grew from RMB 8.8 trillion (US$1.2 trillion) in 2017 to RMB 32.3 trillion (US$4.6 trillion) in 2024, a compound annual growth rate of 20.74%.
However, mid- to large-sized loans in China (RMB 500,000–2 million) still depend on labour-intensive offline due diligence, which is difficult to scale.
MYbank’s AI credit assistant aims to streamline credit evaluation.
The system can analyse research reports, assess industry value chains, and evaluate company operations using multimodal inputs, including phone calls and video.
For example, it accurately assessed a Zhejiang electronics company with annual revenue of RMB 35 million (US$5 million) and limited public information.
The AI confirmed the company held 27 patents, mapped its role in the communications electronics supply chain, and verified production facilities and contracts via video, recommending a credit line of RMB 1.5 million (US$211,392).
After five months of deployment, alignment between the AI assistant’s recommendations and human credit officers’ decisions has increased from 39% to 90%, suggesting growing reliability in credit assessment.
MYbank is also using AI to support SMEs’ cash management and investment planning.
Its system forecasts cash flow across industries, assisting bank-affiliated investment managers in anticipating subscription and redemption timing and helping SMEs optimise returns on idle funds.
The solution, now used by 14 institutions, reports product return volatility 5 basis points lower than the market average.
Featured image credit: Ant Group
