On September 28, 2018, in Beijing, China, people left behind the headquarters of the central bank, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC).
Jason Lee | Reuters
BEIJING – The Chinese government at the center is making it clear that fintech companies like Ant Ant Group come under the same strict financial regulation as banks.
Many start-ups in China and other countries are using new technology to sell cheap and fast financial services in everything from money transfers to loans. Rapid customer adoption has encouraged banks to work with start-ups, often emphasizing that they are technology or fintech companies rather than financial institutions.
“But fintech is still money in essence, so the principle of ‘same business, same rules’ should be applied,” Pan Gongsheng, deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China, wrote in an opinion statement in the Financial Times on Wednesday. He is also the head of the Foreign Exchange.
Page added, “We need regulation that emphasizes substance, not the form of the company.” “The aim is to align business rules and norms with rules to prevent arbitrage.”
Chinese authorities have increased regulation on fintech companies over the past several months.
Most importantly, with regulators abruptly suspending the list of ants associated with Alibaba in November, the company would have introduced the world’s largest early public offering fur.
The page did not mention Ant’s name in the pay-ad, but noted that “in the non-bank mobile payment business, led by Alipay and WeChat Pay”, non-bank mobile payments accounted for 75% in a year between 2015 and 2019. Growth has been seen. Ant Group owns Alipay and is managed by Wechet Pay Tencent.
He added that fintech companies pose the same risks as others in the finance industry and may collect “excessive” amounts of data and violate user privacy.
On Tuesday, China’s central bank governor Yi Gang hinted that the IPO process could resume if Ant could resolve legal issues.
Read the full opinion piece in the Financial Times here.
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