Hefei International Financial Back-Office Service Base (HONG LING)

It's been an inevitable trend for the separation of financial front-office and back-office services. Since the financial back-office service industry—such as call centers, data backup centers, training centers, data analysis centers—is a labor-intensive and hi-tech one that can provide a large number of job opportunities, it has become a sought-after industry between China's big cities. According to industry insiders, nearly 30 Chinese cities plan to set up financial centers in recent years, and more than 10 of them are fighting tooth and nail against each other over financial information technology outsourcing and financial business process outsourcing projects, in an attempt to build financial back-office hubs in those cities.

According to industry insiders, nearly 30 Chinese cities plan to set up financial centers in recent years, and more than 10 of them are fighting tooth and nail against each other over financial information technology outsourcing and financial business process outsourcing projects, in an attempt to build financial back-office hubs in those cities.

Despite its latecomer status, Hefei, capital of east China's Anhui Province, has pulled ahead in the war. To date, 15 financial institutions, including Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC), China Construction Bank, Bank of China (BOC), Shanghai Pudong Development Bank (SPDB), Postal Savings Bank of China (PSBC), China Cinda Asset Management and People's Insurance Co. of China, have all set up their back-office service centers in the city, making it the country's biggest financial back-office service base under construction. Covering an area of 2.6 million square meters, the total investment of the 15 financial institutions amounted to 24.8 billion yuan ($4 billion), with 80,000 job opportunities created. Part of the project for ICBC, PSBC, SPDB and the BOC has already been put into use.

Finance is the blood of a city and the heart of its economic development. Anhui pledged to build its provincial capital Hefei into a regional financial center back in 2008. Since then, the Hefei Municipal Government has attached great significance to the development of the financial sector, with the goal of building the city into a major financial back-office service base in the country and a regional financial hub.

Hefei's Binhu New Area pioneers in technological innovation and modern service industry, laying a solid foundation for the development of financial back-office service sectors in the area. At the beginning of 2009, the Hefei International Financial Back-Office Service Base was established in Binhu, with the goal of developing financial back-office industry and undertaking financial outsourcing projects.

Traditional industry bases are usually located in remote areas, with poor supporting infrastructure. The newly founded base differs from them in that it has been imbedded into the Binhu New Area to enjoy the convenient infrastructure Binhu has to offer.

Covering an area of 2.1 square km, the base is expected to offer 100,000 to 150,000 job opportunities by the end of 2015.

Four Services Provided at the Hefei International Financial Back-Office Service Base

- An area for financial back-office services. This is the core functional zone of the base, including customer service for major financial institutions, payment and clearing of bills, data analysis and processing, loss assessment and claims settlement, data backup for disaster recovery, and asset management;

- An area for outsourcing services of other industries, including call services, e-commerce, research and development of the creative industry and professional services;

- An area for modern services, with the goal of developing modern service industries including legal service, accounting and consulting;

- Supporting area, which fulfills the demand of people who work in the base in housing, shopping and entertainment.