China plans to break up Ant's Alipay and force creation of separate loans app - FT

Record ID: 1636491

  • Title: China plans to break up Ant's Alipay and force creation of separate loans app - FT
  • Date: 13th September 2021
  • Summary: NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (FILE - SEPTEMBER 19, 2014) (REUTERS) ***WARNING: CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** VARIOUS OF ALIBABA FOUNDER JACK MA STANDING OUTSIDE NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE (NYSE) AND POSING FOR PHOTOS HANGZHOU, ZHEJIANG PROVINCE, CHINA (FILE - OCTOBER 29, 2020) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF ANT GROUP SIGN AND LOGO ON BUILDING ROAD IN FRONT OF ANT GROUP HQ PREMISES ENTRANCE TO ANT GROUP BUILDING, PEOPLE WALKING IN LOBBY OF ANT GROUP BUILDING LOGO OF ANT GROUP PEOPLE WALKING THROUGH LOBBY SIGN READING (English): "ANT" SIGN READING (English and Chinese): "ANT GROUP"
  • Embargoed: 27th September 2021 04:26
  • Keywords: Alibaba Alipay Chinese app Chinese government Jack Ma crackdown
  • Location: BEIJING, HANGZHOU, CHINA / NEW YORK, UNITED STATES
  • City: BEIJING, HANGZHOU, CHINA / NEW YORK, UNITED STATES
  • Country: China
  • Topics: Asia / Pacific,Economic Events
  • Reuters ID: LVA002EUJWEH3
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Beijing wants to break up Alipay, the hugely popular payments app owned by Jack Ma's Ant Group, and create a separate app for the company's highly profitable loans business, the Financial Times reported on Sunday (September 12).
    The plan will also see Ant turn over the user data that underpins its lending decisions to a new credit scoring joint-venture, which will be partly state-owned, the newspaper reported, citing two people familiar with the process.
    State-backed firms are set to take a sizeable stake in Ant's credit-scoring joint venture for the first time, three people told Reuters last week.
    In April, Chinese regulators asked Ant to conduct a sweeping business overhaul, including turning Ant itself into a financial holding firm and fold its two lucrative micro-loan businesses Jiebei and Huabei, into the new consumer finance firm.
    Chinese regulatory authorities have been targeting Ant Group and another internet "platform" giants in a wide-ranging crackdown encompassing antitrust and privacy issues, user data, and cryptocurrencies.
    (Production: Martin Pollard, Wang Shubing)
  • Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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