BC Chinese Announces Ant Group to Open Credit Scoring Company

Ant Group is starting a credit scoring company with state-owned equity partners as the Chinese financial technology giant moves ahead with its restructuring. Getting this autonomous company up and running is one of the key steps in Ant’s broader transition to becoming a financial holding company, in line with guidelines set out by Chinese regulators earlier this year.

The fintech company, controlled by Chinese billionaire Jack Ma, is headquartered in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, in eastern China.

The People’s Bank of China announced, this Friday (26) the details of the planned company, Qiantang Credit Reporting, in which Ant would hold a 35% stake.

Zhejiang Tourism Investment Group, controlled by the provincial government of Zhejiang, would own another 35%. Two Ant executives would jointly own 10% through a limited partnership.

Three other Zhejiang-based companies own the rest. The registered capital would be 1 billion yuan, equivalent to approximately US$ 157 million.

The announcement means that the central bank has formally started processing the order. The monetary authority posted details of the deal on its website on Friday, starting a one-week public notification period.

In April, the Chinese BC demanded that the Ant review its operations and transform itself into a financial holding company that would be directly under its supervision.

The new venture ends a six-year journey during which Ant tried to lead a national credit scoring system under his own Zhima Credit brand, and later found his hopes dashed.

Ant operates Alipay, a payment application used by over 1 billion people in China. By providing payments and other financial services to Chinese consumers, Ant acquired a wealth of data, which allowed it to assess the creditworthiness of these individuals in a way that traditional banks cannot.