Alibaba’s financial services unit is rumored to offer Chinese users digital renminbi financial services in cooperation with China’s central bank.
According to the French website Siècle Digital, Alibaba’s Ant Group’s Alipay and Mybank services will accept digital yuan financial services.
Jack Ma has been a symbol of success in the digital economy on behalf of China. But after he likened China’s financial regulator to a club of retired seniors, authorities angered him and began to crack down on him, setting out to overhaul his powerful Ant Group.
The authorities resorted to imposing a huge fine on Alibaba Group for accusing Jack Ma of abusing its dominant market position: 2.3 billion euros. This comes with China’s tightening control over the “online platform economy”. No major conglomerate has ever been fined so much in China!
Jack Ma’s fintech group’s initial public offering (IPO) last November, estimated at $37 billion, was hamstrung by Chinese regulators.
Chinese authorities are overhauling and reforming Jack Ma’s Ant Group, showing Beijing’s determination to control the Internet giant owned by Jack Ma.
The overhaul has been in the works for months, with plans such as transforming Ant into a financial holding company, and authorities intend to curb its profitability and corporate valuation by scaling back some of its liberalized operations.
The economy of Jack Ma’s digital technology products contributes two-thirds of China’s economic growth. Today, Ma’s Ant Financial is so powerful that Chinese authorities must respect it while also becoming concerned that they must be careful to strengthen oversight, since the group has data on more than 1 billion people, which is one of its major strengths. China’s central bank has imposed stricter regulations and capital requirements on Ant Group, requiring it to cut ties between its popular payment app Alipay and other businesses. Alipay has a lot of customer data.
Just two months ago, foreign media reported that Jack Ma’s Ant Group planned to spin off its consumer credit data business, and that spinning off the group’s treasure trove of data on more than 1 billion people was key to overhauling its business in response to regulatory crackdowns.
And to the titillation of investors, Ant Group’s stock market price rose instead of falling, despite a crackdown by Chinese authorities that appears to have trapped Jack Ma in a bitter situation.
Now Alibaba’s financial subsidiary Antjin Group is rumored to allow users of MYbank and the Alipay app to use the digital yuan, also known in its technical form as e-CNY or DCEP.
CNBC, the U.S. consumer news and business channel, said MYbank can now connect with China’s central bank digital currency (MNBC) app, according to an article in China Securities Journal, a Chinese state-backed media outlet.
Ant Group.
Ant Financial Group, which owns 30 percent of MYbank, did not elaborate on its involvement in the digital yuan launch.
The connection to the Central Bank Digital Currency MNBC system and how it will be used in MYbank is also yet to be clarified. Nevertheless, the company confirmed that MYbank is indeed working on a trial around the Central Bank of China’s digital currency.
Antjin Group said: “Antjin will continue to support the research, development and testing of the PBOC’s digital renminbi in conjunction with MYbank,”
Alipay alipay is one of the two main payment application software used in China. By the end of 2020, MYbank is expected to have more than 35 million users, including individuals and small businesses, according to the company’s data. This number marks a growth rate of 68% compared to 2019.
In addition to these companies within Jack Ma’s empire, another social networking site conglomerate, Tencent’s fintech WeChat Bank, is likewise participating in the Chinese central bank’s pilot Pilot Pilot Program for the digital yuan.
As of May 10, 2021, the use of the Central Bank’s Digital Currency MNBC system has not yet been activated on Alibaba’s Webank. Webank was not available for comment in response to inquiries from foreign media.
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