Banks do not usually build space assets, but in China, lenders are increasingly leasing satellites, funding rocket firms and even launching spacecraft of their own.
While banks elsewhere typically use satellite imagery as a purchased “alternative data” feed – for everything from monitoring crops and supply chains to assessing climate and credit risks – Chinese lenders are going further by putting satellites into orbit under their own names.
China Merchants Bank (CMB) launched a satellite on January 16 from Shandong province in eastern China, its third after earlier launches in December 2024 and March 2025.
CMB has said satellite data can help it track market dynamics, strengthen risk management and offer customers more precise financial products and services.
Shanghai Pudong Development Bank (SPDB) also sent its first satellite into space on January 16 from Shandong.
With SPDB joining the launch, three Chinese lenders now have satellites in orbit. Ping An Bank, the banking unit of Ping An Insurance (Group), launched its third satellite in August 2022, including what it described as the first earth observation imaging satellite under its programme.
The moves reflect Beijing’s broader push to cultivate commercial aerospace as China searches for new growth engines amid a slowing economy and heightened geopolitical tensions.
Banks have also been exploring satellite-enabled risk controls for years.
In 2020, Ant Group-backed Zhejiang e-commerce Bank, also known as MYbank, began using the Tomtit satellite remote-sensing technology in agricultural financing. Ant is the fintech affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding, owner of the Post.
Using leased satellites, MYbank said the system achieved an accuracy rate of 93 per cent or above, helping 1.81 million farmers obtain credit loans without collateral, according to its official website.
China has listed aerospace as one of its strategic sectors in its latest five-year economic development plan through 2030, as the world’s second-largest economy seeks to accelerate innovation-led growth.
The US and China are the world’s top aerospace powerhouses. In 2025, the US conducted 180 orbital launches, followed by China’s 93, according to data from Gunter’s Space Page.
In the final week of 2025, China applied to the International Telecommunication Union to launch about 203,000 satellites, the country’s largest-ever international application to date, according to mainland media.
“It is another US competition story – SpaceX’s success has fuelled the urgency for China to catch up,” said Gary Ng Cheuk-yan, a senior economist at Natixis Corporate and Investment Bank.
As the financial sector is among the few with deep capital pools and a wide range of big data applications, demand from lenders would continue to fuel the growth of China’s aerospace sector, Ng said.
Beyond satellite launches, CMB backed LandSpace in 2024. The private reusable rocket start-up is moving towards a 7.5 billion yuan (US$1.08 billion) initial public offering in Shanghai’s Nasdaq-style Star Market and could become the first listed aerospace company in mainland China.
State-owned banks such as Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Bank of China also said in interim reports last year that they were applying satellite technology to strengthen risk management for agricultural project-related loans. -- SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
