Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd., the world's largest bank by assets, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and affiliate Ant Financial Services Group agreed to expand their existing partnership to key areas of financial technology and financial services, including electronic payment settlement, cross-border finance and scenario-based financial services.

The partners started their collaboration in March 2005 when ICBC became the first Chinese bank to join hands with Alipay to offer online payment services to users. Under the new agreement, the partners will seek to use smart technologies and product innovation to improve the quality of financial technology offerings, according to a Dec. 16 news release.

ICBC Chairman Chen Siqing said the partners' cooperation now expands beyond payment and e-commerce to areas such as global corporate finance and financial innovation.