The Impacts of Internet Finance on the Profitability of China's Banking Industry

Author

Hongnai Zhang, Southern Illinois University CarbondaleFollow

Date of Award

5-1-2020

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Economics

First Advisor

Gilbert, Scott

Abstract

Since the mobile communication technology gains a big success in China, internet finance becomes one of the most emerging industries in China in the past decade. People’s living habits have been deeply changed by this emerging service. Nowadays the majority of Chinese citizens use cellphones to deposit and make payments, rather than use traditional debit and credit cards. They can even scan their cellphones to pay the bus and subway fares. While facilitating people’s lives, internet finance also causes new challenges for the commercial banks in China. It makes financial transactions more efficient and lowers transaction costs. Meanwhile, it also takes some profit sources of traditional commercial banks. This study first analyzes the current developing situation of internet finance in China and then introduce the banks efficiency of Chinese banks. Finally, the profitability that is measure by the ROA and ROE of 15 public commercial banks are chosen as the independent variables that measure the profitability of banks. The market scale of internet finance and its profitability are the independent variables. The study finds that while internet finance continues to develop in China, commercial banks’ profitability keeps a decreasing trend. The test results indicate that with the increase of one percent in total revenue, net income and ROA of the internet finance industry, the commercial banks’ ROA decreases by 0.02%, 0.04 and 2.52%, while ROE reduces by 0.22%, 1.04%, and 3.99% respectively.