ant group alipay wechat pay chinesealperreuters

The revamp was unveiled on Monday, soon after financial regulators met with Ant representatives, according to a statement from the country’s central bank.Īt the meeting, the regulators told Ant to more clearly separate its credit products from its payment tools, the statement said. In December, regulators ordered the company to correct what they called a litany of failings in its business. Not long after, Ant’s share listings were suspended. He said big banks had a “pawnshop mentality,” lending only to those who could put up collateral and failing to modernize using technology.

“There is no risk-free innovation in this world,” he said, accusing the authorities of being overly focused on containing risk. His championing of small enterprises and ordinary consumers is what gave Ant its name.

He railed for years against big Chinese banks for not lending enough to small businesses. Ma, China’s most famous tycoon, saw Alipay’s growth in precisely those terms. But they have also weakened the influence that government-owned banks and other institutions long enjoyed in shaping capital flows. Regulators in all three places now share roughly similar concerns about unfair competition, the collection and storage of data, and tech companies’ influence over large segments of national economies.Īnt and other companies, including Tencent, operator of the popular WeChat messaging app and payment platform, have helped bring China to the global forefront of digital finance. “The devil is in the details,” he said.Ĭhina has only recently joined the United States and European Union in looking for ways to rein in internet giants. Collier said, on how the restructuring plan is put in place. Now, the authorities’ more forceful hand in the company’s future could dampen Ant’s appeal to investors if it tried to go public again.Īndrew Collier, the founder and managing director of Orient Capital Research, said the new regulatory framework for Ant could prove more damaging to its bottom line than the antitrust fine would be to Alibaba’s. “Using the rectification as an opportunity, Ant Group will reinforce our commitment to serve consumers, small businesses and the real economy.” “Under the guidance of financial regulators, Ant Group will spare no effort in implementing the rectification plan,” the company said in a statement. The company also said it would strengthen security protections for the personal information it collected to prevent abuse. But as Ant has come to offer other financial services within Alipay, the app has become a major vehicle in China for consumer credit and small-business loans. As part of what both Ant and Chinese officials called a “rectification plan,” the company said on Monday that it would apply to become a financial holding company, which would bring closer supervision and requirements that it hold on to more money that it might otherwise lend or put to profitable use.Īnt said it would also “return to its payment origins.” Alipay started out nearly two decades ago as a payment service for Alibaba’s shopping platforms.

Ant group alipay wechat pay chinesealperreuters