Study on the Impact of Financial Technology on Risk Taking of Commercial Banks

Under the impact of the wave of financial technology, commercial banks must be alert to the new risk reef hidden in the deepwater while adjusting the course and transforming. From the perspective of credit structure, based on the panel data of 42 Chinese commercial banks from 2011 to 2022, this paper constructs a two-way fixed-effect model to empirically test the impact of financial technology on commercial banks' risk taking and the mechanism of bank credit structure in it. The research finds that fintech significantly reduces the risk taking of commercial banks, and this is achieved through two paths: increasing the proportion of personal loans and reducing the proportion of manufacturing loans. Further analysis shows that fintech has a more significant effect on regional commercial banks' risk taking. This study not only provides new insights for commercial banks to develop fintech, but also provides inspiration for regulators to prevent and resolve financial risks and maintain stable economic operation.