NEW YORK — Chinese authorities on Thursday summoned 13 companies operating in the financial technology space including Tencent Holdings and ByteDance, as Beijing looks to further tighten regulations on the sector following its crackdown on Ant Financial.
Financial regulators including the People’s Bank of China — the country’s central bank, the China Banking Regulatory Commission, the China Securities Regulatory Commission, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange jointly held the talks, according a release by the central bank.
New York-listed Lufax, as well as fifintech arms of JD.com, Baidu, Meituan-Dianping, Didi-Chuxing and Ctrip were also among those summoned. Pan Gongsheng, deputy governor of the People’s Bank of China, presided over the talks.
Beijing has accelerated its move to tighten control on the country’s fintech sector after it called off the $37 billion initial public offering of Ant Financial, the fintech arm of Alibaba Group Holding.
As in the case of Ant, the regulators said the aim of the interviews were to “strengthen anti-monopoly and prevent the disorderly expansion of capital,” as well as to check on poor corporate governance, regulatory arbitrage and unfair competition. The companies summoned Thursday, with large-scale operations and significant influence in the sector, epitomize some of these problems, the Chinese central bank said in its release.
The regulators put forward seven rectification principles in their meetings with the companies. For one, all financial activities must fall under regulatory supervision.
The regulators did acknowledge that in recent years, online platforms have played an important role in improving the efficiency of financial services, the inclusiveness of the financial system, and reducing transaction costs, but said the development of financial technology business must serve the real economy and the reduction of financial risks.
Alibaba was recently hit with a record $2.81 billion antimonopoly fine.
