“Fudan· Ant Financial Compulsory Course” is Launched Officially, Promoting High-quality Development of National Inclusive Finance and National Financial Health | Breaking News

Release time：2022-06-27    

On June 21st 2022, the “Fudan·Ant Financial Compulsory Course” jointly produced by Fudan University and Ant Group and jointly developed and launched by FISF and Ant Financial Education Base was officially launched. At the news conference, Fudan University reached cooperation with Ant Group: organizing a joint expert group and developing 16 free classes of the “financial compulsory course”. The course is aimed at popularizing financial knowledge, raising national financial quality, optimizing the level of household wealth, and eventually stimulating the high-quality development of national inclusive finance and national financial health.

On the afternoon that day, present at the conference were Guangshao Tu, Member of the National Committee of CPPCC and Chairman of Shanghai New Finance Research Institute, Changsheng Tao, Member of the Party Committee of Shanghai Municipal Financial Work and Chief Economist of Municipal Local Financial Supervision and Administration Bureau, Xiandong Jing, Board Chairman and CEO of Ant Group, Yun Zhou, General Manager of Customer Experience and Right Protection Department of Ant Group, Jun Qian, Executive Dean of FISF and Professor in Finance, and Yi Huang, Academic Director of “Fudan· Ant Financial Compulsory Course” and Professor in Finance at Fudan University. The conference was hosted by Jiajie Xu, Director of FISF Online Education Program and Head of the Marketing Department.

At the conference, Changsheng Tao, Member of the Party Committee of Shanghai Municipal Financial Work and Chief Economist of Municipal Local Financial Supervision and Administration Bureau, Jun Qian, Executive Dean of FISF and Professor in Finance, and Yun Zhou, General Manager of Customer Experience and Right Protection Department of Ant Group first jointly initiated the “Fudan· Ant Financial Compulsory Course”.

Xiandong Jing, Board Chairman and CEO of Ant Group, gave a speech via video and informed that Ant Group had confirmed the four-in-one ESG sustainable development strategy, integrating the four aspects of “digital inclusiveness”, “green low-carbon”, “technological innovation” and “open ecology. It is a critical task under the topic of “digital inclusiveness” to utilize digital means to implement inclusive financial education and to help raise the financial quality of the masses. In the future, Ant will keep on working from the aspect of “three firsts”, cooperating with partners in various industries to boost the systematization and long-term effect of inclusive financial education.

Jun Qian, Executive Dean of FISF and Professor in Finance, expressed in his speech that Fudan University, together with Ant Group, will send open invitations to expert resources in the academia and industry under the guidance of relevant departments to gradually develop and enrich common financial courses facing an inclusive population, and to develop targeted professional courses oriented to key groups like “the elderly and the young” as well as small- and micro-sized businesses. There are a total of 16 free selected classes covering multiple financial scenarios of public life and small- and micro-sized enterprises at different stages of development, aiming to help consumers of different levels of financial quality broaden their fundamental financial knowledge.

Later, Yi Huang, Academic Director of “Fudan· Ant Financial Compulsory Course” and Professor in Finance at Fudan University, made a specific introduction of the course content, saying that new and high technology with the Internet as the core is currently growing at a fast pace, and that the borders between industries are being broken, leading to significant changes in the financial industry. The series course of “Fudan· Ant Financial Compulsory Course”, at the moment of era transformation, accurately grasps the demand of consumers and small- and micro-sized enterprises for financial knowledge and offers assistance in raising the financial quality of the Chinese masses with its solid professional strengths and abundant financial practices, aiming to achieve the healthy development of China’s financial industry in the long run. The course is featured in four aspects: firstly, it has a strong teaching team and involves a wide range of professional fields; secondly, it is both comprehensive and professional; thirdly, it is rapid and efficient to reach out to the masses, ensuring the university of the target audience; and fourth, the curriculum is diversified and thus able to satisfy various needs.

In the stage of keynote speeches, Guangshao Tu, Member of the National Committee of CPPCC and Chairman of Shanghai New Finance Research Institute, stated that digital finance has been developing rapidly in recent years, providing much convenience for financial consumers to acquire financial products and services. Meanwhile, with financial product innovation increasingly complicated and diversified, there has been a higher demand for the financial quality of consumers. The protection of the rights and interests of financial consumers and inclusive financial education shall be enhanced in the first place, and measures shall be taken to push forward the high-quality development of inclusive finance in China and to realize the financial health of the consumers and society. This is an integral part of the obligations of Shanghai International Financial Center and also the social duty and key liabilities that various parties in the industry need to perform.

When asked how to define excellent inclusive financial education, Yun Zhou, General Manager of Customer Experience and Right Protection Department of Ant Group, noted that financial knowledge is expected to be integrated into products like the home page, life accounts, and mini-programs of Alipay, so that users can improve their financial quality in an imperceptible way. In the future, consumers can search for [Ant Financial Education Base] on the Alipay platform where they can learn online all the inclusive financial courses launched by Ant, Fudan University, and other partner institutions in cooperation. Besides, there are other forms such as live broadcasts, funny quizzes, and learning for donation to encourage education through entertainment and achieve interaction between and favor for each other. So far up to 307 million people are using the Ant Financial Education Base.

As for how to further and more deeply advance the “transformation and upgrade” of inclusive financial education in the future, Professor Jun Qian emphasized in the Q&A stage that the two key points of inclusive finance are: firstly, “common”, meaning a wide coverage from consumers to small- and micro-sized enterprises and start-ups; and secondly, “beneficial”, meaning not costly while of sustainability. Therefore, to well implement inclusive financial education, it is necessary on one hand to broaden the coverage of inclusive finance and develop a modern financial system that is highly adaptable, competitive and inclusive and on the other hand to utilize digital technology and other new and high technologies to reduce the financial service costs and financing costs of consumers and small- and micro-sized enterprises.

“Fudan· Ant Financial Compulsory Course” is a series course of online financial education of Fudan University newly launched by FISF after “Fudan Financial Public Course”, “Fudan Financial Selected Course” and “Fudan Financial Investment Course”. Ever since the first launch in 2020, the series of courses of online financial education of Fudan University have gained wide attention and praise from all walks of life, leading a number of colleges and universities throughout the country to start the journey of inclusive elite education. Under the guidance and support of regulatory departments and the devotion of Fudan University and Ant Group, “Fudan· Ant Financial Compulsory Course” newly launched this time is sure to grow to be a successful example of the in-depth government-industry-university cooperation and a golden name card of inclusive financial education in China, and thus truly give impetus to the long-lasting high-quality development of China’s inclusive financial strategies.