China to launch industry standards for fintech

The project will have a focus on data security and address weaknesses in the financial sector.

China's central bank is set to introduce a set of financial industry standards for 17 financial technology (fintech) categories including as artificial intelligence, blockchain, big data, and cloud computing, according to a report by state-run news agency Xinhua.

The financial standards are reportedly necessary to keep up with developments of digital finance as well as address weaknesses in the financial sector, including the lack of guidelines or old standards, according to Fan Yifei, deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China.

Fan added that the construction of financial standards is necessary as it would fill shortcomings in key areas, conforming to the development trend of artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing, blockchain and other applications in the financial industry. The standards would reportedly focus on data security.

He also emphasized the necessity of speeding up the internationalization of these standards.

Research is currently underway for the project, according to Xinhua.