China plans to break Alipay from Ant and force separate loan applications – FT

September 12 (Reuters) – Beijing wants to break Alipay, the very popular payment app owned by Jack Ma’s Ant Group, and create a standalone app for the company’s highly profitable lending business, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.

The plan will also see Ant hand over data from users who base their lending decisions on a new credit score joint venture, which will be partially state-owned, the newspaper reported, citing two people familiar with the process.

State-backed companies will have to participate for the first time in a sizeable stake in Ant’s credit score joint venture, three people told Reuters last week.

The partners plan to establish a personal credit score company in which Ant and Zhejiang Tourism Investment Group Co. Ltd. (ZJGVTT.UL) will own 35% of the company, while other state-backed partners, Hangzhou Finance and Investment Group and Zhejiang Electronic Port, will each hold a little more than 5%, said one of the people. Read more

According to the FT report, Ant will not be the only online lender in China affected by the new rules. The company did not immediately respond to Reuters’ request for comment.

In April, Chinese regulators asked Ant to conduct a major business review, which would include becoming a financial holding company and turning its two lucrative microcredit businesses Jiebei and Huabei into the new consumer finance firm.

Chinese regulators have targeted Ant Group and other giants of the Internet “platform” in a broad crackdown covering antitrust and privacy issues, user data and cryptocurrencies.

Aishwarya Nair reports in Bengaluru; Edited by Kim Coghill

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