Bank-Affiliated AIC Expands Again How Will 9 Players Differentiate in "Landing on the Beach"?

How do AI and the Differentiated Services of State-Owned and Joint-Stock Bank AICs Create New Quality of Production Power?

Reporter Qin Yufang, Guangzhou

Recently, another state-owned bank’s AIC (Financial Asset Investment Company) has been approved to open.

Postal Savings Bank of China announced that it received the “Approval from the State Financial Supervision and Administration Bureau for the Opening of China Post Financial Asset Investment Co., Ltd.” (Jin Fu [2026] No. 140). According to this approval, the bank’s newly established China Post Financial Asset Investment Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “China Post Investment”) is authorized to commence operations. China Post Investment has a registered capital of 10 billion RMB and is registered in Beijing.

As of now, the number of bank-affiliated AICs has expanded to nine. In addition to the initial five AICs under major state-owned banks, AICs under Industrial Bank, China CITIC Bank, China Merchants Bank, and others have also been approved to operate.

Emerging Differentiation in Development Paths

From the perspective of business focus, the AICs of Postal Savings Bank, China CITIC Bank, Industrial Bank, and China Merchants Bank all explicitly state in their approval announcements that they will focus on technological innovation and new quality of production.

Regarding business models, Zhejiang Securities analyzed in a research report that AIC business models can be divided into several types: market-oriented debt-to-equity swaps, dual GP models, parent-subsidiary fund models, investment and loan linkage, and direct equity investments. State-owned banks often cooperate with local state assets, with many cases involving dual GP fund matrices and parent-subsidiary fund models. Joint-stock bank AICs tend to be established later, mainly engaging in direct equity investments and investment-loan linkage projects. State-owned bank AICs have a broader investment scope, involving both traditional and emerging industries, while joint-stock bank AICs mainly focus on new energy, new materials, and other emerging sectors.

Industry insiders generally believe that as the number of bank-affiliated AICs continues to grow, state-owned and joint-stock bank AICs are developing along differentiated paths, jointly building a multi-layered technology financial service system.

Jiang Han, senior researcher at Pangu Think Tank, stated that state-owned bank AICs leverage their extensive branch networks and strong government credit to effectively mobilize local state assets, creating scale effects, covering entire regional industrial chains, and embodying strategic thinking of “platformization and ecosystem development.” In contrast, joint-stock bank AICs utilize their flexible mechanisms and shorter decision-making chains, focusing more on direct equity investments and investment-loan linkages, quickly responding to market changes in high-growth sectors like new energy and new materials with a “special forces” approach.

According to Gao Zhengyang, a special researcher at SuShang Bank, this differentiation reflects a further segmentation of the functional positioning of bank AICs. “Large state-owned bank AICs serve as stabilizers for financial services supporting the real economy, while joint-stock bank AICs fill the gap in market-oriented capital supply, jointly constructing a multi-level financial service system covering large enterprise transformation and SME innovation and development.”

Jiang Han also emphasized that this differentiation not only prevents inefficient internal resource consumption but also builds a multi-level, complementary technology financial service system, improving overall financial resource allocation efficiency.

Gao Zhengyang further stated that the gradual move of bank AICs toward differentiated and specialized development helps enhance the overall efficiency of financial resource allocation. Overall, the banking system is continuously expanding its role in supporting the transformation and upgrading of the real economy, gradually building comprehensive financial service capabilities covering the entire enterprise lifecycle. Meanwhile, bank-affiliated AICs are deeply involved in regional innovation ecosystems, gradually forming a model of capital, industry, and scene integration; in terms of capital structure, they are better aligned with long-term capital attributes, actively exploring patient capital operations, and providing stronger financial support for innovative enterprises with long R&D cycles and uncertain returns.

Breaking Through Investment-Loan Linkage Bottlenecks

Many analysts believe that bank-affiliated AICs are constructing a multi-layered technology financial service system through differentiated layouts, but still face multiple practical challenges in “early-stage, small-scale, long-term, hard-tech” investments.

Jiang Han pointed out that the biggest bottleneck lies in the structural mismatch between traditional bank credit culture and the high-risk nature of equity investments. Credit thinking emphasizes principal and interest safety and short-term returns, while sci-tech innovation investments are inherently associated with high failure rates and long cycles.

Gao Zhengyang added that early-stage hard-tech projects have high uncertainty, conflicting with the traditional low-risk preference of banks. Traditional credit culture finds it difficult to accept the inherent failure rate of equity investments. Additionally, post-investment management capabilities need strengthening, requiring deep industry knowledge and professional judgment on the technological development paths and industrialization prospects of hard-tech enterprises. Moreover, exit channels for equity investments are still limited, increasing concerns over long-term capital commitments.

Gao Zhengyang believes that to address these issues, first, internal assessment and incentive mechanisms should be improved, establishing long-term evaluation systems, reducing emphasis on short-term performance indicators, and setting differentiated risk tolerances based on investment fields; second, the core logic should shift from traditional collateral-based credit to a growth-oriented investment approach, requiring AICs to further enhance market-oriented decision-making, introduce professional investment teams, rebuild risk assessment models, and strengthen post-investment management. Additionally, at the investment evaluation level, collaboration with industrial capital, research institutes, and other ecosystem partners to build technological assessment platforms can improve professional judgment of hard-tech projects.

Gao Zhengyang believes that bank AICs need to gradually break free from traditional credit thinking, establish independent investment decision-making mechanisms, implement front-loaded investment decisions, and operate in parallel with investment-loan linkage models. They should reconstruct risk assessment models from an equity investment perspective, shifting from traditional focus on financial statements and collateral assets to core technology, management teams, and future growth potential.