Alibaba Financial Denies Rumor of Applying for Bank License
Netease Tech, 12/20/12
Simon Hu, Alibaba Group VP and head of Alibaba Financial, said at a December 19 press event in Hangzhou that over its two years of operation, Alibaba Financial's small loan service has issued loans to 200,000 clients, at an average of RMB 670,000 per loan. Alibaba Financial hopes to serve 1 mln small business and microbusiness clients within three years. Hu also denied rumors that Alibaba Group has applied for a banking license, saying that the company was not suited to banking.
According to Hu, Alibaba has not applied for a banking license because of inherent limitations in the nature of its online financing business. If Alibaba were to set up a bank, a number of the approaches used in Alibaba Financial's small loan business would contravene oversight regulations - for instance, the fact that Alibaba Financial conducts loan application reviews, loan contract signings, and post-loan inspections online, as opposed to in-person as required by banking regulations.
Keywords: Simon Hu financial services Internet Alibaba Financial Alibaba Group