Jack Ma's bank deepens push for business big lenders won't touch

(July 3): MYbank, the two-year-old Chinese online lender that already has 3.5 million small-business customers, plans to push deeper into a segment that’s long been shunned by the country’s largest banks.

MYbank wants to capitalise on its links to billionaire Jack Ma’s Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. by offering loans to the more than 10 million smaller merchants that use the company’s e-commerce platforms, MYbank President Huang Hao said in a June 29 interview. The Hangzhou-based lender is controlled by Ant Financial, Alibaba’s financial affiliate.

Huang is looking to win “as many as possible” of China’s 70 million to 80 million small businesses as customers, most of which have no access to bank loans because they lack collateral. MYbank was one of the first Chinese lenders -- along with Tencent Holdings Ltd.’s WeBank -- to be established completely with private investment under a trial program unveiled in 2014.

---

Related Stories

• Buying into China stimulus Is ‘painful trade’, Lombard Odier says
• China’s stock rally faces risk as retail enthusiasm seen cooling
• China keeps policy loan rate unchanged for second month

---