Lufax: FinTech and the Transformation of Wealth Management in China

Christopher J. Malloy; Lauren H. Cohen; Anthony K. Woo

Case | HBS Case Collection | March 2018

Lufax: FinTech and the Transformation of Wealth Management in China

by Christopher J. Malloy, Lauren H. Cohen and Anthony K. Woo

Abstract

This case examines the rise and competitive positioning of Lufax, an online marketplace headquartered in Shanghai, China, and a pioneer in the origination and trading of financial assets. The company had grown at a remarkable rate, and was awarded “Trading Platform of the Year” for 2017 by the Asian Banker Financial Markets Awards Programme. Case protagonist Gregory Gibb, Chairman & CEO of Lufax, must decide how to navigate the challenging regulatory and competitive landscape, in order to achieve Lufax’s goal of transforming and expanding the wealth management industry in China. Whether the technology giants (e.g. Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent, often collectively known as “BAT”) would be able to develop strong capabilities in the “Fin” part of “FinTech,” and whether traditional financial institutions would become technologically sophisticated enough for their “Tech” capabilities to materialize, were among some of the key uncertainties and potential challenges that Lufax had to confront. There were also looming risks and lingering uncertainties on the political and regulatory front. The focal point of the case centers around how Gibb can strategize and position Lufax going forward, and leverage its unique “finance DNA” to try to win market share in the rapidly changing FinTech and wealth management sectors in mainland China.

Keywords: Asset Management; Online Technology; Competitive Strategy; Situation or Environment; Product Positioning; Financial Services Industry; China;

Language: English

Format: Print

24 pages

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Citation:

Malloy, Christopher J., Lauren H. Cohen, and Anthony K. Woo. "Lufax: FinTech and the Transformation of Wealth Management in China." Harvard Business School Case 218-088, March 2018.

In mid-December 2018, Peter Ma, Chairman and CEO of Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China, Ltd. was considering whether the company should grow a fifth ecosystem of Smart City Services. Established in 1988, Ping An was one of the top 10 global financial institutions in terms of market capitalization with 342, 550 employees and nearly 1.4 million sales agents. Under Ma's leadership, Ping An was transforming from a traditional financial institution to a leading global technology-powered personal financial services group. In recent years it executed a strategy of "Finance+Ecosystem" by leveraging three frontier technologies-AI, blockchain, and cloud technology-to develop four ecosystems: Financial Services, Healthcare, Automobile Services and Real Estate Services. Smart City Services, with its business potential and social impact, had become an attractive new opportunity for Ping An to leverage its technology expertise and business experience while gaining new traffic for the other four ecosystems. Ma wondered: How important would this new ecosystem be strategically for the future of Ping An? If Ping An decided to go after this market, how should Ping An differentiate itself from competitors?

Article | Journal of Finance | June 2020

Lazy Prices

Lauren Cohen, Christopher J. Malloy, Quoc Nguyen, Lauren Cohen, Christopher J. Malloy and Quoc Nguyen

We explore the implications of a subtle "default" choice that firms make in their regular reporting practices, namely that firms typically repeat what they most recently reported. Using the complete history of regular quarterly and annual filings by U.S. corporations from 1995 to 2014, we show that when firms make an active change in their reporting practices, this conveys an important signal about the firm. Changes to the language and construction of financial reports have strong implications for firms' future returns: a portfolio that shorts "changers" and buys "non-changers" earns up to 188 basis points per month (over 22% per year) in abnormal returns in the future. These reporting changes are concentrated in the management discussion (MD&A) section. Changes in language referring to the executive (CEO and CFO) team, or regarding litigation, are especially informative for future returns.

Keywords: information; default behavior; inertia; firms; annual reports; disclosure; Information; Business or Company Management; Behavior; Corporate Disclosure; Financial Reporting; United States;

Citation:

Cohen, Lauren, Christopher J. Malloy, and Quoc Nguyen. "Lazy Prices." Journal of Finance 75, no. 3 (June 2020): 1371–1415. (Winner of the First Prize, Chicago Quantitative Alliance Academic Paper Competition, 2016. Winner of the Jack Treynor Prize for superior work in the field of investment management and financial markets, sponsored by the Q-Group,The Institute for Quantitative Research in Finance, 2016. Winner of the Hillcrest Behavioral Finance Prize, 2016.) View Details

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Lufax: FinTech and the Transformation of Wealth Management in China

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