Alibaba affiliate Ant Financial has launched its MYBank online bank, the Wall Street Journal reported. MYbank, which has registered capital of CNY 4 billion, is ready to issue loans of under CNY 5 million to small businesses, entrepreneurs and consumers.
People are however not able to open accounts yet because of regulatory concerns over the facial-recognition technology the bank wants to use to verify account holder identities. “Because the regulatory authorities have not yet approved the opening of accounts [online], that has greatly affected the products we had originally planned. We had initially prepared a lot of products but they rely on the opening of accounts,” said Tang Jiacai, MYbank’s chief information officer, in an interview earlier this month.
Ant Financial already offers a microloan service for small businesses through Alipay. Ant Financial said its loan unit has lent more than CNY 400 billion to over 1.6 million small businesses and entrepreneurs since 2010. There is as yet no timetable regarding bank accounts or other services.
Ant Financial owns a 30 percent stake in MYbank. Its other stakeholders include Shanghai Fosun High Technology (Group) Co., which holds a 25 percent stake, while the rest is owned by private investors.
