Recently, China Merchants Bank's "CMB Golden Sunflower" satellite and SPD Bank's "SPD Digital Intelligence" satellite were successfully launched into orbit from waters near Rizhao, Shandong. Both satellites belong to China's first globally networked low-orbit satellite Internet of Things constellation, the "Tianqi Constellation," independently developed and operated by Beijing Guodian Gaoke Technology Co., Ltd., a national-level specialized and sophisticated "little giant" enterprise.
This is not the first time banks have sent satellites into space. Previously, China Merchants Bank launched two satellites, "CMB-1" and "CMB-2," in 2024 and 2025, respectively. Even earlier, Ping An Bank launched its two satellites, "Ping An-1" and "Ping An-2," in 2020 and 2022.
The banking sector's journey from the ground to space is reshaping the boundaries and efficiency of financial services. The practices of these three joint-stock banks each have distinct characteristics, with applications planned for supply chain finance, property project risk monitoring, cross-border asset and trade supervision, and other areas. Overall, leveraging remote sensing satellite technology, banks are building an integrated space-ground digital risk control system and emergency communication network, effectively overcoming the limitations of traditional financial services.
On December 22, 2020, Ping An Bank launched the satellite "Ping An-1," which was the first satellite launched by a financial institution in China.
This IoT communication satellite can send and receive data from ground-based satellite IoT device terminals without being limited by terrestrial communication—such as operational status of equipment in remote factories, vital signs of livestock on pastures, or travel trajectories of vehicles and vessels. This authorized operational data is promptly transmitted to the bank.
At that time, Ping An Bank explained that its deployment was in response to its expanding customer base, requiring a larger middleware platform to support trillions in supply chain and digital financial assets, achieving comprehensive connectivity of information flow, capital flow, and logistics within industrial chains themselves and between financial institutions and industrial chains.
More than a year later, the bank's second IoT satellite, "Ping An-2," was launched on February 27, 2022. Compared to "Ping An-1," it features more stable communication links. Through customer authorization, it helps the bank efficiently and intuitively grasp real operational data from upstream and downstream supply chains, further enhancing its supply chain financial service capabilities.
In March 2022, Li Yue, then Director of Corporate Business and President of the Transaction Banking Department at Ping An Bank, stated in an interview that "Ping An-2" would work together with "Ping An-1" as "data relay stations." This enables Ping An Bank to obtain first-hand production and operation data authorized by enterprises, break down information barriers between industry and finance, overcome common financing obstacles like lack of collateral or credit history, help enterprises increase their creditworthiness "conditionally," effectively monetize corporate credit, and solve financing difficulties for small and micro enterprises.
Moving forward to December 5, 2024, China Merchants Bank's "CMB-1" was launched from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, making it the second joint-stock bank to send a satellite into space. Just three months later, the "CMB-2" satellite was successfully launched and entered orbit from Hainan on March 12, 2025.
The "CMB Golden Sunflower" satellite, launched on January 16, 2026, is a low-orbit narrowband IoT satellite. Its launch marks the formal establishment of CMB's low-orbit satellite communication matrix, featuring coordinated "broadband + narrowband" capabilities.
Launched on the same day as the "CMB Golden Sunflower" was SPD Bank's "SPD Digital Intelligence" satellite. Both satellites belong to China's first globally networked low-orbit satellite IoT constellation—the Tianqi Constellation. This launch represents a significant enhancement following the completion of the first phase of the constellation's global network in May last year, substantially increasing constellation density, shortening revisit intervals, enabling higher-frequency global coverage communication capabilities, increasing data transmission capacity, and supporting more concurrent terminal device connections.
In terms of application, remote sensing satellite technology has been deeply integrated into China Merchants Bank's financial risk control system—particularly in the field of property project risk monitoring.
It is understood that through its self-developed retail credit post-loan risk management system for property projects, the bank has achieved high-precision construction monitoring for primary mortgage projects nationwide. Utilizing high-resolution satellite remote sensing imagery, the accuracy of construction progress monitoring exceeds 95%. This significantly improves the efficiency of traditional post-loan inspections and also enables the provision of satellite remote sensing property risk monitoring services to institutional clients, establishing a comprehensive risk control barrier covering project management. This service has already been scaled up, with cooperation established with over twenty key institutional clients, and the number of monitored projects continues to grow.
Zhang Jian, Technical Director of Zhongke Xingtu Space Technology Co., Ltd., explained on January 22 that high-resolution optical satellite imagery can clearly observe the construction progress of property projects. With the rapid development of commercial aerospace, the resolution and accuracy of satellite remote sensing data are continuously improving. Optical imagery with a resolution better than 0.5 meters can clearly capture building facades under certain satellite shooting angles. By identifying the number of floors from the facade and comparing differences through regular (monthly, quarterly) imaging, construction progress can be determined.
SPD Bank stated that after the satellite launch, it will collaborate with Guodian Gaoke to promote the application innovation of the "Tianqi Constellation" in emerging areas such as full lifecycle management of financial assets and cross-border asset and trade supervision, aiding the scaled development of the satellite IoT industry.
Furthermore, all three aforementioned joint-stock banks emphasized the important role of satellite communication in emergency assurance scenarios.
Ping An Bank noted that the key difference between space-based IoT and ground-based IoT is that when devices are in areas without terrestrial signal coverage, they can still transmit information to the "Ping An-1" satellite. This ensures contact can be maintained even when devices experience risk events, effectively enhancing safety assurance capabilities.
China Merchants Bank indicated that it has initiated application verification of low-orbit satellite communication technology in its financial disaster recovery system. By simulating scenarios of ground network interruptions, the bank successfully completed tests for switching to low-orbit satellite links between its headquarters and branch data centers, laying the technical foundation for an "air-space-ground integrated" financial emergency communication network and further enhancing business continuity assurance capabilities for financial institutions under extreme circumstances.
SPD Bank similarly mentioned that, leveraging the robust IoT data acquisition capability of the "Tianqi Constellation," it will further refine its intelligent risk control and comprehensive service system. This enables the rapid restoration and provision of key basic financial services via satellite links in extreme scenarios such as major natural disasters.
The backdrop of banks deploying satellite applications is China's commercial aerospace industry entering a phase of rapid development. In recent years, banking institutions have been increasing their布局 in this area.
After the launch of "Ping An-2," Ping An Bank, discussing its plans in the aerospace sector, stated it would continue to use emerging technologies to innovate financial service models and focus on three key areas: First, continue launching satellites with partners to improve and solidify the satellite constellation system and the Nebula IoT platform, ensuring wider coverage. Second, explore turning IoT applications into consumer-grade, universal, and scalable mature business models, thereby reducing overall customer service costs and genuinely implementing fee reductions and benefit sharing. Third, persistently promote the推广 and application of the IoT satellite service system, explore more IoT solution application scenarios within banking operations, ultimately fostering the healthy development of the real economy, especially small and micro enterprises.
Facing the funding needs for the operation of the Tianqi Constellation network, CMB's wholly-owned subsidiary, CMB Financial Leasing, executed China's first SPV (Special Purpose Vehicle) satellite leasing business, providing Guodian Gaoke with a sale-leaseback service for equipment. This "financing + asset leasing" model aligns with the high-value equipment financing needs of commercial aerospace enterprises. It is understood that the two parties will also explore diversified cooperation models such as cross-border asset leasing and operating leases, promoting the innovative application of IoT satellite technology in the full lifecycle management of collateral.
It is worth noting that although only a few banks have launched satellites so far, satellite remote sensing technology has gradually permeated various business scenarios within the banking industry.
For example, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China mentioned in its 2025 interim report that it is expanding the coverage scenarios for satellite remote sensing monitoring, strengthening applications in agricultural sectors like crop planting and forestry to enhance risk prevention capabilities in its inclusive finance business.
According to documents from Industrial Bank's 2024 annual general meeting of shareholders, the bank has launched satellite remote sensing monitoring projects in 18 branches across 14 provinces. Industrial Bank utilizes IoT and artificial intelligence technologies to develop a digital supervision platform for biological assets, enabling remote monitoring of indicators for live collateral, significantly improving post-loan supervision capabilities, and effectively revitalizing the biological assets of aquaculture enterprises.
MyBank's self-developed "Great Tit" satellite remote sensing risk control system uses artificial intelligence technologies like deep learning to accurately identify crop planting area, variety, and growth status by analyzing satellite images. Combined with risk control models, it scientifically estimates crop yield and market value, thereby helping to determine appropriate credit lines for farmers.
