Tsinghua-Ant Joint Research Laboratory for Digital FinTech was announced to form on October 13, 2016. As a new lab for financial technology between Tsinghua University and Ant Financial Services Group ("Ant Financial"),it will focus on the cutting-edge research in financial security, block-chain technology, artificial intelligence and robo-advisor in the next five years.

The lab is set up at the Institute for Interdisciplinary Information Sciences (IIIS) with Prof. Andrew Yao, IIIS Dean and Turing Award Winner, as Director. Eric Jing, CEO of Ant Financial, said that the lab would also research ways to develop the basic principles and proposals for finance industry in China.

The partnership between Tsinghua and Ant Financial will also draw on the academics and practitioners to collaborate and create an approach of combining industry, academic and research expertise together.