Zhejiang Tailong Commercial Bank (TLB) is the most renowned Small-and-Medium-sized Enterprise (SME) financing service provider in China. TLB has invested over ¥100 million in its charity fund and consistently allocates 2% of its revenue to its foundation. I was fortunate to receive a scholarship sponsored by TLB and even more so to be invited to their headquarters today for a face-to-face meeting with their chairman and the leaders of the Shanghai Branch.

Fair enough, finance people don’t have the most exciting meetings –– I’d prefer intense techical sessions within the research community. Yet, TaiLong bank was generous to share a lot about themselves and did offer an immensely inspiring technical talk on their core business model, as well as followed discussion over their corporate culture.

These two aspects of TLB’s business model particularly intrigued me: the external and internal facets. Externally, their target of providing financial services to SMEs is challenging, yet their approach to this challenge is refreshing. Internally, the corporate culture exudes humanity and care. I will elaborate on these two aspects in the coming days. Stay tuned!