24 Apr 2026
On the afternoon of 15 April, International Business School (IBSS) at Xi’an Jiaotong-Liverpool University (XJTLU) organised a visit for 22 students from the MSc Investment Management, BSc Economics and Finance, and BSc Information Management and Information Systems programmes to visit the Digital Finance Exhibition Hall of China Merchants Bank (CMB) Suzhou Branch for an enterprise visit and thematic exchange. Led by Dr Xie Li and Dr Xiao Yajun from the Department of Finance at IBSS, together with Yahong Cai from the Student Development and Support Team, the visit focused on trends in financial technology digital transformation in banking. It gave staff and students an immersive industry learning experience.
During the visit, Yifan Xu Vice President of CMB Dushu Lake Sub-branch, and Zhengyao Liu, Exhibition Hall Supervisor, warmly received the visiting staff and students and delivered professional presentations. During the exhibition hall tour,, Zhang Lina from the Information Technology Department of CMB gave an explanation of the innovative application of digital finance, focusing on Conch RPA, an automated process tool independently developed by CMB. By simulating manual operations, this tool enables the automatic execution and efficient processing of business processes, and is widely used in scenarios such as data processing, report generation, and back-office operations, greatly improving operational efficiency and effectively reducing the risk of human error.
The exhibition hall also showcased CMB’s digital strategy for corporate services, including platforms such as Xinfutong for payroll and employee services, CMB Invoice Cloud for digital invoice management, and E-Canteen for catering and employee benefits. At the same time, the staff shared the bank’s cutting-edge application practices in the fields of artificial intelligence and big data, allowing students to intuitively feel the integrated development and landing value of “AI + Finance.” After the visit, the exhibition hall issued certificates of perticipation to the Digital Finance Exhibition Hall of CMB Suzhou Branch to all visiting teachers and students as a souvenir of their study.
In the subsequent in-depth exchange, Zhengyao Liu gave a detailed explanation on CMB’s recruitment process, interview skills, career development paths, internal transfer and competition mechanisms. In the Q&A session, students actively interacted, conducted in-depth discussions with CMB guests on issues such as job requirements, career planning, and the development trends of the financial industry, creating a warm on-site communication atmosphere.
This visit gave IBSS staff and students a clearer understanding of digital transformation in banking and a first-hand view of CMB’s strengths in research and development, computing power investment, and corporate culture. It also helped them clarify possible career paths in the financial industry and build greater confidence in the sector.
Going forward, IBSS will continue to deepen university-enterprise cooperation, build a more diversified practical education platform, help students temper their professional abilities and improve their industry insight in real business scenarios, and cultivate interdisciplinary business talent suited to the digital finance era.
24 Apr 2026