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Ant Group
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Ant Group revamp ‘basically completed’, says central bank official, in key step forward for China’s biggest fintech firm

  • Ant Group and others ‘have basically completed business rectification’ under the guidance of financial regulators, a central bank official said on Friday
  • The announcement came after Ant received regulatory green light last month to expand the capital base at its consumer credit unit

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The Ant Group headquarters in Hangzhou, China’s eastern Zhejiang province. Photo: AFP
Coco Fengin Beijing
Chinese financial technology giant Ant Group and 13 other platform companies “have basically completed business rectification” under the guidance and supervision of financial regulators, a central bank official said on Friday, signalling a major development in the firm’s state-guided restructuring process.

The 14 platform enterprises, which have been ordered by the government since late 2020 to address various compliance issues, “proactively” cooperated with authorities, said Ma Jianyang, a financial market official of the People’s Bank of China, in a news conference.

The announcement marks a key step forward for Ant, after its blockbuster initial public offering in Hong Kong and Shanghai was called off just days before trading was due to begin in November 2020.

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Since then, the central bank and the country’s financial regulator have imposed fresh regulations to clip the wings of Ant, demanding that the Hangzhou-based company follow the same rules as a conventional bank, such as having an adequate capital base and leverage ratio.

To restructure its business, Ant – which had been controlled by founder Jack Ma until he relinquished his power recently – set up a working group in January 2021 to meet targets set by financial regulators.

Ant is an affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding, owner of the South China Morning Post.

On Friday, central bank official Ma said financial regulators will continue to promote the healthy development of the platform economy by accelerating the correction of “a few remaining unaddressed problems”, improving the regulatory mechanism, and establishing financial supportive measures.

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