Digital Transformation of Financial Leasing Companies: A Study on Data Platform Construction and Business Empowerment

Abstract

Driven by the dual engines of “financing + leasing,” the financial leasing industry has long suffered from lengthy approval processes, coarse post-leasing monitoring, and superficial customer value mining. Its digital penetration rate significantly lags behind that of banks and insurance companies. This paper takes the 5-Dimensional Integrated Data Platform (5-DDMP) launched by Huaxia Financial Leasing in 2019 and fully operational by 2023 as the experimental scenario. It integrates multi-source panel data from 832 projects, 526 post-leasing contracts, and 317 customers. Utilizing the difference-in-differences (DID) method and Bootstrap mediation testing, the paper systematically evaluates the net effects of the data platform on efficiency, risk, and value metrics, as well as the underlying mechanisms. The findings indicate that the platform launch reduced the approval cycle by 50.7%, decreased the overdue rent rate by 65.6%, and increased cross-selling revenue by 23.3%. Data integration contributed a mediation effect of 58.3%. Heterogeneity analysis shows that large-scale projects and the sub-sample of distant-water fisheries benefited more. A benchmarking with GE Capital reveals that Huaxia leads in leasing asset IoT coverage (92% vs. 78%) but lags in cross-border data collaboration (65% vs. 90%). This paper is the first to quantify the causal chain of “technology investment - data integration - business performance,” providing a replicable and promotable architectural framework and quantitative benchmarks for the industry. It offers insights for promoting green leasing and cross-border leasing strategies and establishing unified data standards.