On January 7, Beijing Yusys Technologies (Group) Co., Ltd. (stock code 300674, hereinafter referred to as "Yusys Technologies") announced that it had received strategic investment from Baidu. The two parties will cooperate in financial cloud, big data, artificial intelligence, blockchain and other fields to develop the financial industry and promote the upgrade of financial intelligence.

Yusys Technologies is a leading financial technology facilitator in China. It provides financial institutions with consulting and planning, software products, application development, technical services, operation and maintenance, system integration and other full value chain services, and has developed numerous stable and exceptional customers. Yusys Technologies has provided products and services to the People's Bank of China, China Development Bank, two non-commercial banks, six state-owned commercial banks, 12 joint-stock banks, more than 10 foreign-funded banks and more than 100 regional commercial banks and rural credit cooperatives. Concurrently, it has provided diverse products and solutions for non-banking institutions, including consumer finance companies, auto finance companies, financial holding companies and finance companies. Accordingly, the brand has a strong reputation throughout the industry.

Yusys Technologies, with more than 20 years of financial IT service , has been a leader in the IT solution market in China's banking industry since 2010. The company has maintained a leading position in online banking, credit management, business intelligence, risk management and other segments.

Baidu is the world's leading AI platform company. Baidu Smart Cloud is an important carrier and promoter of Baidu's AI2B activity. It promotes the industrialization of AI and realizes the intelligent upgrade of all types of industries through its "cloud + AI" model. In 2019, data from the IDC and other domestic and foreign institutions show that Baidu Smart Cloud is among the first echelon of China's cloud market and is the leader in "cloud + AI."

The two parties aim to connect capital and business through this cooperation so as to engage the use of novel technologies and application scenarios. Leveraging their respective advantages, the two companies will conduct innovative cooperation in financial industry in the financial cloud, core Internet, distributed database, big-data analysis, intelligent financial brain, blockchain, trusted computing and intelligent interaction. Additionally, Yusys Technologies and Baidu will create in-depth technical integration, with Baidu providing the technology platform and Yusys Technologies providing the technology application. Based on the premise of security, they will create an advanced "technology + application + ecosystem" integration capability in the industry to jointly promote the application and popularization of independent innovation software products for the financial industry.

As the leading enterprises in their respective fields, the strategic cooperation between the two parties will have a profound impact on the financial technology and cloud service markets. Hong Weidong, Yusys Technologies' Chairman and CEO, said, "As an AI2B technology facilitator, Baidu has leading technologies and layouts in frontier fields such as AI, cloud computing, big data, 5G, edge computing and blockchain. The cooperation between Yusys Technologies and Baidu is a strategic combination of a financial technology company with industry service experience and a world-leading AI platform company. Together they've created a new model of innovative technology that targets in-depth financial applications. The two parties will complement each other's advantages and achieve strategic synergy to provide customers with intelligent, secure, efficient financial IT services, build a complete ecosystem and ensure win-win in the industry."

Baidu CTO Wang Haifeng also expressed his expectations for the cooperation between the two parties: "Yusys Technologies has been involved in the financial field for 20 years and is in a leading position among China's financial technology solution providers, whereas Baidu is China's first and most comprehensive leader in the field of artificial intelligence. With Baidu's brain as the core and relying on intelligent cloud, the strategic cooperation between Baidu and Yusys Technologies will yield the large-scale implementation of artificial intelligence in the field of financial services and accelerate the intelligent upgrade of the financial industry."

The People's Bank of China issued the "FinTech Development Plan (2019 - 2021)" in 2019, thereby proposing that the "four beams and eight pillars" of our country's financial technology development be established by 2021. The plan will enhance the technology application capabilities of the financial industry, and realize in-depth integration of finance and technology as well as coordinated development. Today, our country is ushering in a wave of financial technology development. Information technology is gradually developing from an adjunct business to a leading business, and the in-depth integration of finance and technology has become a new trend. During the next phase, the in-depth application of innovative technologies such as cloud computing, artificial intelligence and blockchain will accelerate a new round of intelligent transformation in the financial industry. Yusys Technologies stated that it will continue to deepen its financial IT services and digital financial solution capabilities as it provides more assistance for the intelligent development of China's financial industry.