(Yicai Global) Dec. 12 -- Bank of East Asia China opened a branch in Shanghai yesterday which features fifth-generation wireless network communication technology that offers biological recognition and Big Data services. 
It is the first 5G branch ever set up by a foreign-funded bank in China.

It does not look like a bank, but more closely resembles a coffee shop, as none of the cash counters or desks so frequently seen in traditional financial foyers are present, but it has semi-enclosed service bays for clients, with the public area furnished with couches with coffee and snacks to hand.

The outlet's most salient feature, however, is the technology that enables it to transcend the limits of time and space that hem in conventional services and enhance the customer experience by rendering services more convenient and secure, Yicai Global learned from an on-site visit.

Branches applying 5G technology show the banking sector embarking on a shift and entering into a new era of smart retailing, BEA China noted, adding the Hong Kong-based bank aims to offer not merely 'more highly-efficient' outlets but smart banks that 'understand more about customers.'

Large lenders have gazed on the 5G sector with growing ardor since this type of mobile network technology first launched and commercialized. Bank of China, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank and Shanghai Pudong Development Bank have successively positioned themselves in the 5G sector, and China Construction Bank's first batch of three branches featuring unmanned 5G technologies also opened in Beijing at the end of June.

Editor: Ben Armour