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Ant Group has shared just a fraction of its consumer data with China’s central bank, defying intense government pressure to hand over more information after it was forced to pull its record $37bn initial public offering last year.
The data dispute is the latest front in a fight between Beijing and the financial technology group founded by Jack Ma, the country’s best-known entrepreneur, after officials halted the company’s IPO days before it was set to list in November.
Beijing’s intervention followed a speech by Ma in which he sharply criticised China’s regulators and state-owned banks. The billionaire, who previously founded ecommerce group Alibaba, has largely disappeared from public view since making the remarks. His fight with the authorities is the most prominent example of the growing tensions between the state and China’s private sector as President Xi Jinping seeks to exert tighter control over the economy.
The People’s Bank of China has long wanted to create a pool of credit data to help big state-owned banks assess creditworthiness as consumer loan defaults have increased.
The PBoC has also flagged concerns about the size of private companies such as Ant, hitting out at the “inappropriate collection and control of data” by “leading internet platforms that have abused their market monopoly”.
Ant is China’s largest holder of consumer credit data and its Alipay app is the country’s biggest payments platform. The company offers two consumer-lending products: Huabei, which is similar to a conventional credit card; and Jiebei, which offers small unsecured loans through Alipay.
Ant had agreed to provide some information to a state-backed database on the 500m customers who have taken out loans, including their personal identities, monthly borrowing amounts and debt repayment statuses.
But the company has shared little of its data and the PBoC is unhappy with its progress, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
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