HONG KONG: Alibaba Group Holding Ltd affiliate Ant Financial has banned consumer loans with annual interest rates above 24 percent from its Alipay platform, a move which comes as China’s government increases scrutiny of lightly regulated online lending. Ant Financial, which operates Alipay, confirmed to Reuters it has introduced the rule for business partners to better protect consumers. Ant said it would continue to monitor and remove noncompliant businesses and asked all to conduct self checks by Nov. 30. The move comes after the government this week took steps to tighten supervision of the lightly regulated sector of online lending, leading to companies scrapping plans to go into the business. Companies providing small loans, especially over the internet, have expanded rapidly in the past year in China, partly due to loose regulation.

Source: New Strait Times November 24, 2017 13:41 UTC