Zennon Kapron has been involved in the financial technology industry for over 15 years and is the Founder and Director of Kapronasia, a Shanghai-based provider of financial technology research and advisory services. Before Kapronasia, Zennon was the Global Banking Industry Manager for Intel based out of Shanghai, China and, prior to Intel, was the CIO for Citigroup Portugal. He holds a Bachelor’s of Science in Computer Science from Syracuse University and an MBA from INSEAD. He is also the author of Chomping at the Bitcoin: The History and Future of Bitcoin in China (2014).
Think Alibaba is just China’s Amazon? Think again. It may one day to be the nation’s biggest wealth management firm.
Over the past 5 years, China’s financial product offerings and services have increased dramatically through a process of regulatory reform and the entrance of third-party non-financial institutions. This has provided retail consumers with a bevy of new investment choices and venues, it has also started a model of deploying financial services that has never been attempted or seen in other markets. Bitcoin had its defining moment in China’s financial industry, now Alibaba’s Yu’ebao, P2P lending, and online finance are redrawing the barriers of the banking sector. These unprecedented developments are shaking up the world’s second-largest economy and provide a case study in financial regulatory and innovative change that has never been seen before.
Zennon provided an overview of the latest financial innovations in China’s financial industry and how they are disrupting the sector. He suggested ways in which the same innovations may spread from China and potentially change the industry globally and how global companies have failed to accomplish the same outside of China.
