Apec to spotlight Shenzhen's global fintech push

Shenzhen’s financial services sector has been increasingly shaped by the deep integration of fintech and by its expanding overseas reach, according to a senior executive at Ping An Property and Casualty Insurance Company. Those trends are likely to draw wider attention next week, when global leaders arrive in the southern Chinese city for the Apec summit. Xu Hua, assistant president of Ping An Property and Casualty Insurance Company, said the company’s own history mirrors Shenzhen's fintech development. Founded in the 1980s in Shekou – an industrial area in western Shenzhen – it has grown from a regional insurer into a service network covering more than 110 countries. Financial services already form one of Shenzhen’s four pillar industries. Ping An Property and Casualty Insurance Company is among the companies taking part in the meeting, and its parent, Ping An Group, is one of the official sponsors. Xu said Shenzhen’s financial industry is most characterised by the deep integration of finance and technology. "Shenzhen is an innovation capital. It brings together a group of representative technology companies. Technological innovation comes with trial and error and risk. It faces practical difficulties such as high research and development investment, rapid technology iteration and strong uncertainty," he said. "Wherever innovation...