During the Song Dynasty (960-1279), the Chinese were the first to use paper money. In late 2013, many Chinese raved about Yú’é Bǎo, 余额宝 (“leftover treasure”), a money market fund offering roughly double the interest rates banks did. Launched by Alipay, an Alibaba subsidiary, the fund attracted 150 million clients and $93 billion within 18 months, a phenomenal feat. A confluence of factors puts China at the financial technology (“fintech”) forefront: economic advancement, investor behavior, mobile technology, big data, financial industry liberalization, and regulatory acquiescence. Chinese consumers have readily adopted fintech services such as online banking, currencies, money transfers, payments, crowdfunding, lending, investing, and insurance. At the 2016 Fund Forum Asia conference in Hong Kong, industry experts discussed the impact of fintech in China.

https://techcrunch.com/2016/08/14/china-is-disrupting-global-fintech/