The first private financial holding company is born, but Alibaba and Tencent – the hi-tech giants that inspired the reform – remain in stand B. The Chinese central bank has officially named China Holding In November 2020, the company overtook fintech giants Ant Group and Tencent Holdings, the very ones that inspired the reform: private individuals, to operate financially, must obtain an ad hoc license and, above all, change their skin.
A real leap into the void
Are you a Chinese company outside the financial sector owning two or more financial institutions? Then you have to adjust.
A real leap into the void for 30% of China’s GDP, equal to the country’s digital services activity, dominated by the big tech. Together with the State Council the Central Bank in November 2020 introduced new rules imposing mainly targeted at tech giants operating in e-commerce including Alibaba’s Ant financial urging them to clearly separate economy from finance.
Giants who, for now, remain in the queue waiting to receive the longed-for authorization.
Stop banking
The central government’s warning two years ago sounded sinister. China had decided to impose registration as a financial holding company on industrial groups that had hitherto acted in hybrid form, aiming at the separation of commercial and industrial activities from financial ones.