How Chinese Banks Accelerate IT Efficiency with DevOps Maturity Assessments

Amid a nationwide digital transformation, enterprises are adopting DevOps to boost IT efficiency. The "Research and Development Operations Integration (DevOps) Capability Maturity Model" led by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology (CAICT) provides a high‑value guidance framework, and many leading banks have participated in its assessment to improve IT capabilities, integrate resources, and better support business systems.

Participating Financial Institutions and Evaluation Count

The following city‑commercial banks and other financial institutions have taken part in the DevOps capability maturity assessments, totaling 13 entities:

Statistics are current up to July 28, 2022. Numbers represent projects/modules evaluated under Continuous Delivery Level 3, Technical Operations Level 2/2+, Security & Risk Management Level 2, and System & Tool assessments. The data include both parent companies and subsidiaries. Additionally, four projects achieved Continuous Delivery Level 2.

Continuous Delivery (Standard 3) Compliance

Zhengzhou Bank – Two Projects Passed Evaluation

By embedding DevOps principles, Zhengzhou Bank achieved standardized configuration and environment management, dramatically improved deployment efficiency through automation, established a layered testing strategy with extensive automated testing, and built a full‑lifecycle continuous delivery platform that enhanced overall efficiency.

Baixin Bank – "TianCe Credit Middle‑Platform" Project

The project reconstructs consumer credit and personal business loan systems to enable "no‑code" product launches within 1‑2 weeks, with elastic performance and capacity to support future growth, aligning closely with DevOps Level 3 requirements.

Zhongyuan Bank – Cloud Payment Platform & Enterprise Mobile Banking

Since 2018, Zhongyuan Bank has pursued a digital transformation, building a cloud‑native infrastructure with microservices, containers, Service Mesh, and DevOps. The cloud payment platform offers a wide range of payment services, while the enterprise mobile banking app provides secure, convenient financial services for corporate clients.

Zhongbang Bank – Internet Financial Service Platform

Leveraging big data, cloud computing, and AI, Zhongbang Bank built an open‑banking architecture (POWER IT) that reduces service costs, improves efficiency, and supports rapid scaling for small‑and‑medium enterprises.

Zhongyuan Consumer Finance – New Generation Consumer Credit System

The system, launched in October 2021, achieved a six‑fold increase in daily delivery throughput, reduced critical issue resolution time to under one hour, reached 100% unit‑test and automated‑test coverage, and raised monthly production frequency to 18 releases.

Ningbo Bank – Scenario Payment System Project

The project upgrades the payment middle‑office, separates UnionPay functions, accelerates batch transfers, and improves credit‑card settlement efficiency, supporting a more modular and scalable payment architecture.

Xinwang Bank – Distributed Consumer Credit Core System

Built on a distributed microservice architecture with domain‑driven design, the system enables rapid creation of differentiated credit products and supports high‑availability, elastic scaling.

Technical Operations (Standard 4) Compliance

Zhengzhou Bank – Core Business System

The 2018 "lean" core system features flexible product and pricing factories, microservice‑based module separation, read‑write database splitting, traffic control, and high‑availability mechanisms, enhancing reliability and development efficiency.

Security & Risk Management (Standard 6) Compliance

Zhongyuan Bank – Personal Mobile Banking Project

Adopting DevSecOps, the bank integrated security controls throughout the agile delivery pipeline, built a security technology service platform, and established a full‑lifecycle secure development management system.

Zhengzhou Bank – Electronic Banking Project

The electronic banking system extends core banking services to internet channels, offering self‑service, personalized features, and leveraging the advantages of online channels.

System & Tool (Standard 8) Compliance

Zhongyuan Bank – Original Development‑Operations Integrated Platform

The pipeline module, evolved from the DevOps platform, combines flexibility, ease of use, standardization, and distinctive practices, built on a distributed microservice architecture deployed in a dedicated container cloud, ensuring stability and dynamic scaling.

About the DevOps Capability Maturity Model

The "Research and Development Operations Integration (DevOps) Capability Maturity Model" series, jointly developed by CAICT, the Cloud Computing Open Source Industry Alliance, high‑efficiency operations community, BATJ, and leading financial and telecom enterprises, is the first comprehensive DevOps standard worldwide. It has been approved by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and adopted by many leading firms. The model, also recognized by the ITU‑T in July 2020 as the world’s first international DevOps standard, covers Agile Development Management, Continuous Delivery, Technical Operations, Application Design, Security & Risk Management, and System & Tool sections.

For further information on DevOps standard assessments, please contact CAICT (Liu Kaili, phone 15650786171, email [email protected]) or the High‑Efficiency Operations Community (Wei Huanxin, phone 18500255645, email [email protected]).