Wang He Yi quickly took office. Although the position was somewhat marginalized, he had officially entered the ranks of gh's senior management. With future efforts, there was still a possibility of moving up.
Moreover, even if he retired in this position, Wang He Yi would receive excellent retirement benefits, be able to serve as a consultant to various companies, or use his connections to resolve issues that were very tricky for others but simply a matter of a word for him.
Therefore, Wang He Yi was very satisfied with this outcome and was also very grateful to Huang He, as he knew very well that without Huang He, he would probably have been sidelined and could not have reached this position.
So, after careful consideration and much effort, Wang He Yi finally came up with a plan for the task assigned by Huang He.
On September 20, 2003, the fourth day after Wang He Yi took office, gh held a standing committee meeting, but the chairman's seat was empty.
Perhaps due to the previous failure at the board meeting and his impending retirement, the chairman simply stopped coming to work, hiding somewhere to relieve his worries.
The senior executives were also pleased about this. If the chairman were still around, they would have to go through him for many things. Now that the chairman was gone, they could discuss and handle matters themselves through the meeting.
In fact, although it was called a discussion, there was generally no room for discussion. Each of the senior executives present had their own domain, and the policies they proposed were related to their own domains. Under normal circumstances, they would not interfere with others.
Therefore, it was natural that you would not veto my policies, and I would not veto your suggestions. Everyone would be happy, and everything would pass.
Taking advantage of this opportunity, most of the senior executives present presented their own carefully considered new policies. After all, many of these policies had an element of risk, and under normal circumstances, the chairman might not have approved them. Now was the perfect time to pass them amidst the chaos.
Of course, these policies were only slightly risky; there were no overly risky or non-compliant policies, otherwise, others present would have objected.
After all, a new chairman would eventually take office, and they did not want to be held accountable later.
As one of the most marginalized departments, Wang He Yi naturally spoke last, presenting his new policy.
However, as soon as Wang He Yi finished introducing his policy, everyone present turned pale with shock, looking at Wang He Yi in amazement. This guy, who had just taken office and had not yet settled in, was proposing such a radical policy. Was this guy crazy?
So the question arises, what policy did Wang He Yi propose?
It was very simple. It was a policy that would become commonplace in the future market: convenient payment and electronic settlement policy.
Currently, major banks had their own electronic banking services that allowed online transactions, but the current online transactions were extremely complex and cumbersome.
For example, if one wanted to use gh's account to pay for a fee at Jiangnan Mall, they would first have to log in to gh's official website, then log in to their own bank account, and then transfer funds to the Jiangnan Wallet account on the webpage, specifying the name of the receiving account and the recipient's name to complete the transfer.
This process itself was already troublesome enough. However, due to the complexity of current electronic information security, preventing hackers from stealing cash, or preventing someone from stealing an account name and password and directly transferring money from the user's account through online banking.
Therefore, it was usually necessary to have a digital security card or a more advanced electronic key to use the service. The entire transfer process, even for very experienced users, took about 5 minutes to complete.
And if it were a computer novice, it might take them a month to figure out the process.
It was not just the slow transfer process. Since the money was transferred from a bank account to the company's account, there was also a waiting time for the transfer, which was often between 24 and 48 hours.
This was unimaginable for online shopping users in 2021. Shouldn't online payment be completed instantly with a tap of a finger and confirmation of a password or fingerprint, followed by the platform starting to ship?
Why was it taking 1-2 days just to pay?
This was also why Jiangnan Group was promoting Jiangnan Wallet. Users would deposit a large amount of cash into Jiangnan Wallet first and then consume funds from Jiangnan Wallet, which would enable instant payment.
In simple terms, in 2003, completing a transfer required three steps: first, transferring from a bank account to Jiangnan Group's account, then transferring from Jiangnan Group's account to the buyer's personal account, and finally transferring from the buyer's account to the seller's account.
In 2021, it was much simpler. Although the money was still transferred from a bank to the platform, it could be operated directly on the platform page, and the verification methods, such as mobile phone binding and personal fingerprint, password, etc., were simplified to the point where it could be completed in a few seconds.
Wang He Yi's proposed policy was to simplify payment time. Of course, for security reasons, most people did not have mobile phones, and still had to pay through the web page.
Therefore, payment still required a security card or an electronic key for transactions.
However, it was no longer necessary to log in to the bank's official webpage and manually enter various information for transfers.
Instead, after clicking to pay, various information would be directly transmitted to the bank to generate payment information, and users could confirm the payment using their security measures. The entire process reduced two-thirds of the steps, and the time was saved to only the verification of security measures.
To people in 2021, this was a normal simplification plan, and it was even considered cumbersome, complicated, and inconvenient, a very conservative and backward solution.
But when Wang He Yi proposed it, it immediately surprised many senior executives and led to various objections.
They were not targeting Wang He Yi but genuinely felt that this plan was too risky and unreliable.
Because to simplify to this extent, it would require binding Jiangnan Mall's payment system with the bank's electronic banking system to a certain extent to achieve instant information exchange and payment information generation. This would require a lot of technical research and attempts, which was a technical cost issue.
However, the technical aspect was a minor issue; it could be resolved with sufficient investment. The real problem was changing the cooperative model between banks and e-commerce platforms. This might seem like nothing, but it was a huge transformation for the entire banking industry.
Who knew if this would trigger any crises or adverse consequences? If there were any mishaps in the process that led to major malicious incidents, everyone present would suffer.
Therefore, although everyone present understood that this simplified plan was very beneficial for the development of e-commerce in banks and could bring huge prospects to banks, no one dared to agree to this plan, as whoever agreed would have to take the blame.
"I can bear all the consequences of this matter and guarantee that it will not implicate any of you!" Wang He Yi said decisively, but everyone was still hesitant and unwilling to budge.
Who knew if Wang He Yi was truly willing to take the blame himself? Moreover, could this blame be borne by him alone? What if it still affected them?
Therefore, no one present spoke up to agree, and it seemed that this simplified policy would die out without any resolution.
At this moment, the benefit of having a chairman became apparent. As long as the chairman made the final decision and agreed, everyone would follow suit and agree. After all, if any problems arose, the chairman would bear the blame.
But now that the chairman was not coming, everyone was unwilling to take responsibility themselves.
"I think this matter is acceptable!" Suddenly, a familiar voice rang out. Everyone followed the sound and saw that the chairman had appeared in the conference room at some point, quietly looking at everyone and saying, "I think Minister Wang's opinion is very good. E-commerce is the development trend of future society, and the entire banking industry should vigorously develop electronic payments. If gh can be the first to launch a convenient payment policy, then it will be ahead of all banks and become the leader in the electronic finance industry!"
Hearing the chairman's words, everyone was stunned again.
What was going on? They had cooperated to help Wang He Yi take office and had suppressed many of the chairman's confidantes, essentially destroying the chairman's faction. The chairman must have hated Wang He Yi to the bone. Why was he now changing his tune and agreeing to Wang He Yi's plan?
Moreover, he was so firmly supportive. Had these two been acting all along?
Everyone felt confused, but the chairman continued to ask, "Everyone, do the lost corporate clients want to come back? Are they willing to continue to get loans from our bank?"
"This..." Hearing this question, everyone's expressions became very awkward.
Although stabilizing Jiangnan Group and the news of the two parties reconciling with Jiangnan Group's cooperation had calmed many users' sentiments and finally stopped the outflow of customers, the customers who had already left were difficult to win back. After all, changing banks was also a troublesome matter, and no one would want to go through the hassle again.
"How much in loans have we lost?" the chairman asked the head of the finance department.
"A total of nearly 60 billion yuan!" the person in charge replied with a wry smile.
"Alright, how about this loss of loans being borne entirely by Jiangnan Group?" the chairman looked at Wang He Yi and said, "Go tell Huang He that 1 billion US dollars is underestimating him. Forbes magazine has released their latest valuation, and Jiangnan Group's valuation has already reached 8 billion US dollars."
"So, we can draft a new loan agreement, with the entire Jiangnan Group as collateral. We can lend 60 billion yuan to Huang He, with the interest rate calculated at the lowest rate. As long as he dares to borrow this loan, I will approve your convenient payment policy. Anyway, my old bones are useless, and I will bear all the responsibility!" As he spoke, the chairman's eyes flashed with great brilliance!