E-commerce mammoth Alibaba's a

E-commerce mammoth Alibaba's affiliated fintech company Ant Group defied regulations and used its market-leading power to squeeze competition and hurt consumers, China's authorities said in a statement released on Sunday after summoning the company for a talk.
The authorities also urged the company to enhance transparency in business transactions, avoid unfair competition and obtain permits to conduct personal credit business. Ant was also asked to correct its financial businesses in the areas of loans, insurance and wealth management.
After Ant's IPO was abruptly halted in November, which would have been the largest IPO ever, the company that evolved from a PayPal-like online payment business into a fintech empire covering a variety of online banking and financing businesses, has been under regulatory overhaul as authorities warned it of monopoly and unregulated business expansion.
The People's Bank of China, the Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, the Securities Regulatory Commission and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange summoned the Ant Group on Saturday to point out its violation of rules and demanded that it correct its business practices in a number of areas.
Besides a lack of awareness in following regulatory rules, the company had also "had incomplete corporate governance mechanism, used market advantage to exclude industry operators and harmed consumers' legitimate rights," deputy head of the central bank Pan Gongsheng said in the statement in the form of a Q&A with the press on Sunday.
China has been making efforts to mitigate financial risks and maintain a healthy financial market in recent years. During the recent Central Economic Work Conference, the country identified strengthening anti-monopoly practices and prevent the disorderly expansion of capital as one of the key economic tasks for the coming year.
While the deputy head of the central bank affirmed Ant's innovative efforts in developing fintech, he also issued a warning, "as a company with significant influence in the field of financial technology and platform economy, Ant Group must consciously abide by national laws and regulations, integrate corporate development into the overall landscape of national development, and must earnestly assume corporate social responsibility."
Chinese regulators imposed a series of requirements including that the company return to its beginnings as a payments service provider, protect personal data privacy in its credit-scoring services, and set up a financial holding company to ensure capital sufficiency.
Ant must be aware of the severity and necessity of restructuring its businesses, and come up with a rectifying plan and timetable as soon as possible, said Pan.