Fintech：银行数字化是其持续发展的生存之道

Big tech’s threat to banking is no longer a headline. It is close to consensus. China is the clearest example: Tencent and Ant Financial absorbing huge parts of the payments market, and a new league of competition is in the making.

科技巨擘对银行业的威胁已不再是头条新闻。这已接近达成共识。中国就是最明显的例子：腾讯(Tencent)和蚂蚁金服(Ant Financial)吸收了支付市场的巨大份额，一个新的竞争群体正在形成。

Some investors are undervaluing banks and paying over the odds for shares in fintech companies that they think will supplant them. Dutch fintech group Adyen is due to float shortly at a price that would give it a valuation of up to 7.1billion euros. It posted net profits of 24.1million euros in the first quarter. By contrast, Spanish bank BBVA has a market capitalisation of 40 billion euros and net profits in the first quarter of 1.3billion euros.

一些投资者正在低估银行的价值，并为他们认为将取代银行的金融科技公司的股票支付过高的价格。荷兰金融科技集团Adyen不久将上市，获得至多71亿欧元的估值。该公司一季度录得净利润2410万欧元。相比之下，西班牙对外银行(BBVA)的市值为400亿欧元，第一季度净利润为13亿欧元。

No doubt, the threat is out there. But at BBVA we have been trying to transform ourselves to meet the challenges of the digital age for more than a decade.

毫无疑问，威胁是存在的。但在西班牙对外银行，我们10多年来一直在努力改变自己，以迎接数字时代的挑战。

Along the way, we have realised that some of banking’s core strengths — security, privacy and compliance — are not easily replicable and are increasingly significant, as we all learnt from Facebook’s tribulations. At the same time, we have learnt how to use technology to improve customer experience.

一路走来，我们意识到，银行的一些核心优势——安全、隐私和合规——是不容易复制的，而且越来越重要，因为我们都从Facebook的困境中吸取了教训。同时，我们也学会了如何利用技术来改善客户体验。

But the need to protect all forms of data against everything from cyberterrorism to customer exploitation has never been more acute. We are also starting to understand that data are an essential input with an impact on competition, and I believe this will lead to a crackdown on monopolistic behaviours by the big search and social media groups.

但是，保护所有形式的数据、使其不受各种侵害（从网络恐怖主义到利用客户）的需要，从来没有像现在这样迫切。我们也开始认识到，数据是对竞争产生影响的一种重要投入，我相信这将导致监管机构打击大型搜索和社交媒体集团的垄断行为。

A new regulatory model is needed, one that understands the complexities of data and balances privacy, security and competition across sectors. As we develop one, the playing field between lenders that have adapted to digital on the one hand and tech and fintech companies on the other will become more level.

我们需要一种新的监管模式，它要理解数据的复杂性，平衡隐私、安全与跨行业竞争。随着我们发展这种模式，已适应数字化的银行与科技和金融科技公司之间的竞争环境将变得更加公平。

Consumers will see the merit in having their data assets — whether financial or not — safeguarded within a trusted environment, but they will also benefit from a competitive and transparent market. Companies need to appreciate such changes.

消费者将看到让自己的数据资产---无论是金融还是非金融资产---在可信赖的环境中受到保护的好处，但他们也将受益于一个竞争和透明的市场。企业需要理解这种变化。银行需要在自身核心优势的基础上找到一种演变方式，以便最终使它们变得更相关，更能融入人们的生活。

Big tech is extremely successful at building ecosystems: networks of interconnected products and services, and nodes that share data. They create huge volumes of interactions every year. Banking creates fewer interactions, but typically each one is of higher value. Making a transaction or buying a service is “worth” more than liking a friend’s photo or searching online.

科技巨擘在构建生态系统方面非常成功：由联网产品和服务构成的网络，以及共享数据的节点。它们每年都会创造巨量的交互。银行业创造的互动较少，但通常而言，每次互动具有更高的价值。相比为朋友的照片点赞或在线搜索，完成一笔交易或购买一项服务“更有价值”。

The more we adapt to the digital age, the more clearly we see our opportunities. We have been preparing for more than a decade, making many mistakes but also learning from them. We are girding for the battle ahead: there is room for a reduced number of providers.

我们越是适应数字时代，就能越清楚地看到我们的机遇。我们已准备了10多年，犯了许多错误，但也从中吸取了教训。我们正在为未来的战斗做准备：市场上只能容纳更少的提供商。