The holding company would include wealth management services, consumer lending, insurance, payments and MYbank, an online lender in which Ant is the largest shareholder.
Ant Group is proposing a structure that would still see it operate in financial services beyond payments, though its activities would be more tightly regulated and subject to more capital restrictions, «Bloomberg» reported on Tuesday (behind paywall), citing people familiar with the situation.
On Sunday, Chinese regulators instructed Ant Group to overhaul its operations, asking it to set up a separate financial holding company to ensure sufficient capital and data privacy protection.
Just yesterday, finews.asia reported that Beijing has come at Ma directly and advised him not to leave the country.
Tech Sell-Off
In addition to accusations against Ant over issues relating to governance, compliance and regulatory arbitrage, regulators have also come after Alibaba over monopolistic practices. The company has grown from a digital payments platform to a sprawling financial empire that operates China's most popular digital wallet.
Alibaba and its three largest rivals — Tencent, food delivery giant Meituan and JD.com — have shed nearly $200 billion in Hong Kong over two sessions since Thursday, when regulators revealed an investigation into alleged monopolistic practices at Jack Ma’s Alibaba.
Ant’s founder has not been seen in the public spotlight since October, when he publicly criticized China's regulators and banks, which resulted in China's decision to stop what would have been the world's biggest IPO.
