New | Alibaba’s Ma proposes collaboration in fintech sector
‘Inclusive’ system would help many companies flourish, says chairman
Jack Ma, chairman of Alibaba Group, offered an olive branch to other financial technology (fintech) organisations on Saturday as he advocated a concerted effort to tap the huge potential of China’s digital banking sector.
“We would like to entirely share with partners our capability of data collection and data processing to jointly develop the inclusive financial system,” he told a financial forum in Shanghai. “It won’t be a single giant firm that can dominate the country’s digital banking services.”
His remarks were aimed at playing down speculation on the potential dominant role of Ant Financial Services, an Alibaba affiliate, in the mainland’s new financial landscape amid a rapid penetration of internet technologies.
Ant Financial, which covers everything from online payments to asset management, insurance, credit assessment and lending and consumer finance, was valued at US$60 billion earlier this year following its second round of financing.
It is viewed as a new behemoth financial institution that could help redraw the mainland’s financial landscape presently dominated by powerful state-owned banks, brokerages and insurers.
In an effort to provide clarity on the business model of Ant Financial, Ma labelled it a platform on which other fintech firms could mushroom with help from the online financial juggernaut.