Beijing summons online financial platforms and warns over unfair market practices
- Companies asked to attend include Tencent, Baidu’s fintech arm, JD Finance, ByteDance and Meituan Finance among others
- Regulators say there have been breaches of consumer rights with some platforms operating outside permitted business areas
China’s top financial regulators have summoned 13 of the country’s technology companies that run online financial businesses, including Tencent Holdings and Tik Tok-owner ByteDance, and told them to step up anti-monopoly measures and to halt “the disorderly expansion of capital”.
The People’s Bank of China (PBOC), the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, the China Securities Regulatory Commission, and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange talked as one with the tech-run online financial platforms on Thursday, according to an announcement issued by the central bank late that evening.
The companies asked to attend were internet giant Tencent, Baidu’s fintech arm Du Xiaoman Financial, JD.com’s JD Finance, ByteDance, Meituan Finance, Didi Finance, Lufax Holdings, Xiaomi’s fintech arm Airstar, 360 Digitech, Sina Finance, Suning Financial Services, Gome Fintech and Trip.com’s fintech arm.
“Serious issues, including unlicensed fintech businesses, companies running financial businesses beyond the permitted business operations … and infringements of the lawful rights and interests of consumers are practices widely seen among online financial platforms,” said the regulators at the meeting, which was organised by the PBOC’s deputy governor Pan Gongsheng.
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“The online platform companies being summoned this time all run large-scale and comprehensive businesses, are influential in the sector and have seen common problems come to light. These problems must be corrected in a serious manner,” according to the announcement.
The regulators have asked the companies to carry out self-inspections and meet the central government’s requirements, and highlighted that financial businesses should serve the real economy as well as lowering financial risks.