China has been at the forefront of financial technology (fintech) growth,especially in areas of digital financial inclusion,such as providing mobile payment,online lending and digital insurance to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and low-income individuals.Each of the two main mobile payment service providers,WeChat Pay and Alipay,has close to one billion users.During the first 10 months of 2018,China made a record US$12.8tn in mobile payment transactions,surpassing the US$49.3bn transactions made in the US] And each of the three online banks,WeBank,MyBank and XWBank,extends around 10 million SME and individual loans every year.In 2018,fintech investment in China reached US$25.5bn,accounting for 46 percent of all fintech investment globally.2 While fintech is rapidly transforming business models,individual lives and the macroeconomic environment in China,there is still inadequate documentation of such revolutionary changes,let alone careful analytical research.This special issue represents a small step in trying to fill this gap.
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