China to disseminate Ant’s Alipay and pressure creation of separate loans app

• BySheetal Sidhu     |    September 13, 2021

China is aiming to break up the Alipay, a popular payments app owned by Jack Ma’s Ant Group, in order to make a new app for the company’s 1 billion-plus-user loans business, a report by Financial Times said. This would make the most visible reforming yet for the giant as China aims to crack down on monopolistic tech behavior.

Officials previously ordered Ant to split the businesses of AliPay from lending businesses Huabei and Jiebei. They now want the credit businesses to be split into an independent app as well, according to the FT. Accordingly, Ant will turn over user data supporting loan decisions to a new credit scoring joint venture, mentioning people acquainted with the process. The joint venture will be partly state-owned, the report said.

The partners plan to establish a personal credit-scoring firm wherein Ant and Zhejiang Tourism Investment Group Co Ltd will each own 35% of the venture, while other state-backed partners Hangzhou Finance and Investment Group and Zhejiang Electronic Port, will each hold slightly more than 5%.

According to the FT report, and will not be China’s only online lender affected by the new rules. Chinese regulatory board has been targeting Ant Group and other Internet “platform” giants in a widespread crackdown surrounding antitrust and privacy issues, user data, and cryptocurrencies.

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