No need for discussion: There was general agreement among the colleagues from China that digitizing savings banks operations is gaining more and more importance – even on a global scale. For that reason, representatives from the Bank of Weifang and the Mintai Bank gladly accepted the invitation of the Sparkassenstiftung für internationale Kooperation (Savings Banks Foundation for International Cooperation) to Germany: The one-week visiting programme organised by Sparkassenstiftung on the topic of digitizing in corporate banking led the guests from the Far East to five different German savings banks and gave them insights into ways of approaching and implementing digitizing at institutions in urban and rural areas.
The representatives from Sparkassenstiftung’s Chinese partner institutions strongly profited from the specialized lectures and exchange of experience with German financial experts: The visit to the Sparkasse Aachen focusing on the calculation of prices in the lending business, but also the visit to the Sparkasse KölnBonn, highlighting the topic of the digital challenge, and of the Kreissparkasse Euskirchen focusing on how the servicing and consulting of customers is organised in rural areas were followed by vivid discussions of how the newly gained insights and knowledge about digitizing strategies can be transferred from the German savings banks model to China’s financial sector. And these discussions were even intensified by visits to the Sparkasse Darmstadt, focusing on marketing in the lending business, and to the Sparkassenakademie Hessen-Thüringen (Savings Banks Academy of Hesse-Thuringia), where the Chinese guests had the opportunity to exchange views about staff training with experts from the Sparkasse Mainz. In addition to the financial concept of the Savings Banks Finance Group and the implementation of a branch managed by trainees only, many other interesting concepts applied by German Sparkassen were presented and explained to the Chinese bank representatives, which could be introduced in Chinese banks in an adjusted and customized form.
Chinese credit institutions often manage a business portfolio corresponding to that of a smaller German savings bank. The principle of regional networking is shared by both, Sparkassenstiftung’s Chinese partner institutions and the German savings banks: Following the German model, the comprehensive supply with financial services of all segments of the population is one of the most important goals of Chinese banking institutions, too.
Sparkassenstiftung launched its cooperation work with Chinese savings banks in 2009. Currently, Sparkassenstiftung runs three projects focusing on professionalising the SME business and on staff training. Many Chinese credit institutions render services to wealthy private and large corporate customers, but the segment of medium-sized customers is more than often neglected. With the aim to empower its Chinese partners to provide professional financial services to these customer groups, Sparkassenstiftung imparts German savings banks expertise in different provinces of China. Further information can be accessed under the link: <link http: www.sparkassenstiftung.de _blank>www.sparkassenstiftung.de
A publication about the delegation visit to Kreissparkasse Euskirchen can be accessed <link https: ksk-eu.sparkasseblog.de chinesische-delegation-zu-besuch-bei-der-ksk-euskirchen _blank>here [German language only]
An article about the delegation visit published in the daily newspaper of the German region of Southern Hesse “Echo” can be accessed <link http: www.sparkassenstiftung.de fileadmin user_upload pdf artikel _blank>here [German language only]
An article about the Delegation visit published in the Sparkassenzeitung number 39 can be accessed <link http: www.sparkassenstiftung.de fileadmin user_upload pdf artikel dsz_25-09-2015_china_delegation.pdf _blank>here [German language only]
Contact partners:
Nicole Brand / Ferdinand Feldgen
Sparkassenstiftung für internationale Kooperation
Simrockstraße 4
53113 Bonn
Tel.: +49 228 9703-6634 /-6616
Fax: +49 228 9703-6613