In recent days, as the curtain came down on 2023 semi-annual reporting season for financial institutions, major banks have presented their 'progress reports' on the development of financial technology in the first half of the year.
Among them, CMB (China Merchants Bank), renowned as the 'Retail King' bank of the industry, unveiled its 'secret weapon' for the first time – the Asset Liability Management Graph System (ALM Graph System).'
According to CMB's report, 'The Asset Liability Management Graph System, encompassing billions of detailed data points and harnessing high-performance graph computing technology, empowers branch staff to conduct deep data mining and analysis, resulting in a total savings of 31,200 work hours.'
The performance of the deposit forecasting model is equally impressive: 'The deposit forecasting model provides forward-looking and precise predictions for proprietary deposits and interbank demand deposits, reducing manual forecasting errors by 70% and saving approximately CNY 1 billion in funding costs during the reporting period.'
Summary of China Merchants Bank Co., Ltd.'s 2023 Interim Report
In the first half of 2023, China Merchants Bank (CMB) continued to demonstrate its position as a leader in the Chinese banking sector, achieving notable financial results and unveiling its groundbreaking ALM Graph System. Here are the key highlights from the bank's semi-annual report:
Financial Performance
CMB maintained strong financial performance, reporting significant growth in both revenue and profits.
The bank's net income showed a remarkable increase, reflecting its ability to navigate complex market conditions effectively.
CMB continued to deliver value to its shareholders through dividends and share buybacks, underscoring its commitment to shareholder returns.
ALM Graph System
CMB introduced the revolutionary Asset Liability Management Graph System (ALM Graph System), a game-changing platform that leverages advanced graph computing technology.
The ALM Graph System, with its vast database of billions of data points, empowered branch employees to conduct deep data mining and analysis, resulting in substantial time savings.
The deposit forecasting model within the ALM Graph System demonstrated exceptional foresight, providing precise predictions for proprietary and interbank deposits, reducing manual forecasting errors by 70%, and substantially lowering funding costs.
Business Modules
The ALM Graph System comprises eight essential modules, including comprehensive asset liability management, liquidity management, intraday liquidity management, pricing management, performance management, intelligent analysis, input-output analysis, and asset allocation and management.
These modules collectively address the need for comprehensive, multi-currency, all-scenario, deep-level, and multidimensional intelligent analysis, effectively resolving challenges associated with the scale and complexity of banking operations.
Global Recognition
The innovative ALM Graph System has garnered attention and recognition from forward-thinking financial institutions worldwide, highlighting its potential to revolutionize the banking industry.
China Merchants Bank's semi-annual report serves as a benchmark case for the collaboration between China's financial industry and financial technology, showcasing the transformative impact of the system.
In summary, China Merchants Bank's 2023 interim report reflects its continued success in the financial industry and the unveiling of the ALM Graph System, which represents a significant leap in the realm of financial technology, setting a new standard for intelligent banking operations.
It is worth noting that the ALM Graph System is composed of 8+ major modules, including real-time asset liability management, intra-day liquidity management, cross-indicator management, pricing management, performance analysis, impact analysis, attribution analysis, and supply-chain analysis. It relies on the Ultipa Graph XAI (graph-augmented Intelligence) as its underlying engine system, aiming to empower the entire bank to meet the business demands of comprehensive, multi-currency, all-scenario, deep-level, and multidimensional intelligent analysis. This system effectively resolves challenges faced by banks due to large volumes of business data, extensive calculations, fragmented systems, and limited computing power, making tasks such as data verification, retrieval, and utilization much more efficient.
One of the unique features of CMB's new graph-powered ALM system is cross-indicator analysis capabilities -- previously, ALM managers have to log onto different (many) siloed systems to retrieve data and generating a report can be very time consuming, often tiems relying on IT department to write custom SQL code and waiting lenghty time (often weeks). This is no more with the new ALM graph systems -- all tasks are automated, all data are connected and all analysis are conducted in real-time. The core underpinning graph engine by Ultipa is known for its unqiue capabilities to deeply traverse data in real-time, which makes all the difference.
Numerous forward-thinking financial institutions worldwide have recognized the revolutionary innovation of this system. The exposure of CMB's semi-annual report is a benchmark case in the collaboration between the financial industry and fintech/AI startup like Ultipa, highlighting the transformative impact of the graph XAI technology.
