China’s Ant Group to share credit data with central bank

BEIJING (AP) — China’s central bank will soon have access to the private credit information of hundreds of millions of users of Ant Group’s online credit service, in a move signaling more regulatory oversight of the financial technology sector. Huabei, Ant Group’s credit service, says consumer credit data it has collected will be included in the People’s Bank of China’s financial credit information database. The move is part of various regulations for Ant, which has been ordered to end its monopoly on information and behave more like a bank. Earlier, the authorities abruptly halted Ant’s planned $34.5 billion listing days before its stock debut.