The Internet of Things offers potential opportunities in retail and corporate banking and will fuel the rise of new types of clients in the form of smart cities and autonomous artificial intelligence driven market agents.

Financial institutions are starting to use APIs to create important linkages between their products and services and their customers and important third party value providers. Early movers to stand to gain mindshare of both customers and the wider application developer community.

Increasing adoption of digital payments has resulted in stiff competition within the industry. Non-bank payment players have become more aggressive, aiming to grow into full scale financial service providers.

China Merchants Bank and China CITIC Bank are developing their credit card businesses to stimulate retail income.

The People's Bank of China has established an integrated system to connect banks, merchants, and retailers to facilitate increased transactions, which grew 74.5% to $913.5 trillion in 2015. With growing consumer spending, financial institutions in China have to step up to meet the needs of retail clients.