Mr Lai joined Tencent in 2009 and was the general manager for Tenpay between 2012 and 2019. In 2015, Tencent’s payment business was accelerated and developed into Tencent FiT (Financial Technology). Since then, Mr Lai has been leading Tencent FiT until 2019.
During the time when Mr Lai headed up the Tenpay and Tencent FiT business, he and the team have made contributions of strategic significance in setting up the Group’s payment infrastructure and in creating an open financial ecosystem. In 2014, Mr Lai and his team launched WeChat Red Packet and QQ Red Packet, which had gained huge popularity across China. This enabled Tencent to tap into the fast payment market and provided a solid foundation for gaining a competitive edge in mobile payment. In 2014, Mr Lai and his team also launched the wealth management platform Licaitong. The platform has grown its aggregated customer assets to over RMB 800 billion by first half of 2019. Consequently, with payment services as an entry point, Tencent has succeeded in establishing a financial ecosystem that covers such diversified fields as wealth management, securities, banking, and blockchain. This has positioned Tencent as the leader in the FinTech sector. In 2017, Mr Lai initiated the establishment of Tencent Finance Academy, which aims to nurture cross-border talents for the Internet and financial sectors and to facilitate the long-term development of the FinTech industry. Mr Lai is the Dean of the Academy.
Tencent’s virtual bank business is tasked with the mission of exploring innovations and opening up new frontiers for the company and the industry. In May 2019, under Mr Lai’s leadership, Fusion Bank Limited, a joint venture initiated by Tencent, was granted a virtual banking license by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority. In June 2019, as Tencent’s vice president, Mr Lai was appointed as the Chairman of Fusion Bank.
Mr Lai is concurrently a director of renowned financial corporations including ZhongAn Online P&C Insurance Company Limited, Hetai Life Insurance Company Limited, and CITIC Capital Holdings Limited.
Prior to joining Tencent, Mr Lai had successively been an investment manager with Apax Partners PE in the UK and Lehman Brother’s Investment Bank in the US; and served as associate vice president at Credit Suisse First Boston Investment Bank.
Mr Lai is a member of the Guangdong Provincial Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. In the Hong Kong SAR, he is a member of the Chief Executive's Council of Advisers on Innovation and Strategic Development and a member of Committee on Innovation, Technology and Re-industrialization. He also serves as a board member and Convenor of the Policy Research Committee of Financial Services Development Council and a member of the Financial Infrastructure and Market Development Sub-Committee of the Exchange Fund Advisory Committee of Hong Kong Monetary Authority. In 2009, Mr Lai was named Outstanding Corporate Leader in the 530 Program of Wuxi Municipality, Jiangsu Province, People’s Republic of China.
Mr Lai holds a bachelor’s degree in computer science from MIT, minor in economics. He also holds a master’s degree in computer science from MIT as well as an MBA degree from Harvard Business School.
賴智明在2009年加入騰訊,於2012到2019年間擔任財付通總經理。 2015年,騰訊的支付業務升級至業務線,騰訊金融科技 (Tencent FiT) 隨之成立,並由賴智明擔任負責人至2019年。
在擔任財付通總經理和騰訊金融科技負責人期間,賴智明和團隊為騰訊打造支付基礎設施及金融開放生態做出了具有戰略意義的重大貢獻。在支付領域,賴智明和團隊於2014年推出了國民級移動支付應用—— 微信紅包和QQ紅包,深受數億用戶的喜愛,實現了全球最大規模的互聯網金融創新,為騰訊移動支付彎道超車和攻取行業制高點打下了堅實基礎。2014年,賴智明和團隊還推出了騰訊金融科技旗下的專業理財平台——“理財通”。經過短短幾年的發展,騰訊“理財通”的總客戶資產已超過人民幣8,000億元(截至2019年上半年)。在賴智明的領導下,騰訊金融科技成功建立起以支付為入口,覆蓋理財、證券、銀行、區塊鏈等多元領域的金融生態體系,確立了在金融科技領域的領先地位。2017年,賴智明發起成立了騰訊金融學院並擔任院長,致力於結合騰訊在互聯網和金融領域的優勢,培養互聯網和金融跨界人才以促進金融科技行業的發展。
虛擬銀行作為騰訊在香港佈局的關鍵一環,承擔著探索創新和改革攻堅的重任。2019年5月,在賴智明的帶領下,由騰訊等投資發起設立的香港虛擬銀行——富融銀行成功獲得香港金融管理局頒發的虛擬銀行牌照。2019年6月,賴智明作為騰訊集團副總裁出任富融銀行董事長。
賴智銘曾任眾安在線財產保險股份有限公司、和泰人壽保險股份有限公司、中信資本控股有限公司等知名金融企業的董事,協助打造騰訊金融業務生態。
加入騰訊集團前,賴智明在英國Apax Partners私募基金和美國雷曼兄弟投資銀行都擔任投資經理,也曾在瑞士信貸第一波士頓投資銀行擔任助理副總裁。
賴智明是廣東省政協委員,亦是香港特別行政區行政長官創新及策略發展顧問團成員和創新、科技及再工業化委員會委員、香港金融發展局董事會成員兼政策研究小組召集人、香港金融管理局外匯基金諮詢委員會金融基建及市場發展委員會成員。賴智明於2009年獲選“江蘇省無錫市530計劃企業優秀領軍人物”。
賴智明於美國麻省理工學院獲得計算機學士及碩士學位,輔修經濟學,並於美國哈佛大學商學院獲得工商管理碩士學位。