Plans for a joint laboratory in financial technology and engineering have been unveiled by City University of Hong Kong (CityU) and JD Digits, a leading digital technology company in mainland China, under a strategic collaborative agreement signed by both parties on 5 December.

The joint laboratory will research areas including, but not limited to, asset pricing, financial risk monitoring and user behaviour. It will provide innovative solutions for the development of the global financial market, promote exchange and training, organise academic forums, and develop and share resources.

The strategic agreement was signed by CityU’s Vice-President (Research and Technology) Professor Lu Jian and Mr Gao Zhihong from JD Digits’s Risk Management Department. 

The ceremony was witnessed by Professor Way Kuo, CityU President, Professor Alex Jen Kwan-yue, Provost, and Ms Shen Xiaochun, Deputy General Manager of Risk Management Department at JD Digits. Guests attending the ceremony included Professor Li Duan, Acting Dean of the School of Data Science (SDSC), and Dr Wu Qi, Assistant Professor of SDSC. 

According to the agreement, the two parties will conduct research on data modelling and analysis, and jointly develop innovative applications of financial engineering, technologies as well as big data in risk-based loan pricing. 

JD Digits will share practical experience in adopting financial technology, while CityU will help JD Digits further enhance its scientific research capability and groom management professionals. 

Professor Kuo said CityU had world-class faculty in the field of data science and the setting up of a joint laboratory with JD Digits, a well-established company, would drive the development of data science in Hong Kong. 

“The laboratory provides an opportunity for technology companies, academics and students to explore new models in the research and application of financial technologies,” Professor Jen said. 

He noted that CityU had recently launched its School of Data Science and the Hong Kong Institute for Data Science. “The laboratory represents another milestone in utilising data science to promote the financial development of Hong Kong.”

Ms Shen said JD Digits had successfully reduced the non-performing asset ratios of corporations by introducing machine learning and artificial intelligence to financial risk management. She said she expected that the strategic partnership with CityU would enhance JD Digits’ strength in pricing financial products and managing financial risk.

About City University of Hong Kong
City University of Hong Kong (CityU) is a dynamic and fast-growing university. With an emphasis on professional education and research, CityU produces graduates who anticipate and precipitate change in a quickly evolving, globalised world. Our unique Discovery-enriched Curriculum puts discovery and innovation at the forefront of our professional programmes in science and engineering, business, creative media, law, the humanities and social sciences, energy and the environment, and veterinary medicine and life sciences. For more information about CityU, please visit: www.ncm2.xyz.

About JD Digits
JD Digits was formerly known as JD Finance until it was comprehensively brand-upgraded in November 2018. Its operational purpose is to connect finance and real industry by using digital technology, boosting the influence of the Internet, enhancing the digital and intelligent development of industries, foster the development of the real economy and create greater social value. With its cutting-edge technologies and expertise in data technology, AI, and IoT, JD Digits has been involved in many fields, from digital finance, digital city, digital agriculture, digital marketing and digital campus services, and integrated its clients, in terms of the personal-end, corporate-end and government-end, as one. In the future, JD Digits is going to further explore current business patterns and will enter into more real industrial sectors.
 

Media enquiry:
Choi Yiu, Communications and Public Relations Office, CityU (Tel: 3442 6806 or 9166 6522)