geo/china
Ning Tang, CEO of fintech firm CreditEase (and a SME Finance Forum member) explains how the company is lending consumers cows in a bid to reach those living in rural areas who might have limited access to credit and financing.
According to Reuters, China will exempt banks’ interest income from loans to small firms and rural households from value added tax, authorities said, in the latest step to address a long-standing issue of lack of financing to small firms. The policy will be in effect from December 1, 2017 to the end of 2019, the finance ministry and tax administration said, while contracts for loans with small firms will also be free of stamp taxes from 2018 to 2020.
The debut HKTDC SmartBiz Expo is a one-stop platform tailored for enterprises, especially small and medium enterprises (SMEs), to explore trends in business transformation and upgrade through innovation, creativity, application of technology and design, and market opportunities.
The SmartBiz Expo will be composed of 6 thematic solution-based zones showcasing innovative business solutions and ideas, and latest technology and creativity that could be applied to business to achieve business growth.
The largest fintech conference in Hong Kong will gather 2000 people in Hong Kong, with 60 speakers from 20 countries assembled to cover fintech design, innovation & entrepreneurship, and see the top 24 startups globally pitch for prizes and cash.
Tencent credit ratings will be available to check directly through QQ and WeChat, according to reports. While Tencent has been using its scoring in its lending businesses, it has not before made the scores available to WeChat and QQ Pay users. Their data sources for scoring are different than Ant and Alibaba in China.
Shanghai F-Road focuses on mobile financial services. It is dedicated to providing mobile financial services via mobile terminals, and offering comprehensive solutions of mobile banking to regional banks.
Alibaba has been a trailblazer in many ways. One area that Alibaba wants to dominate is finance for both consumers and SMEs and they are well on their way. Ant Financial, their financial services subsidiary, is executing on this vision and last week Eric Jing, CEO of Ant Financial, delivered a presentation explaining their approach.
To put the reach of Ant Financial into perspective, Jing shared some hard numbers:
IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, and Ant Financial Services Group, one of the world’s leading tech companies and parent company of Alipay— signed a memorandum of understanding to increase support to digital financial solutions to make basic financial services more accessible in China and other emerging markets.
Building on an already strong relationship, the MoU will elevate the partnership to a new level for stronger development impact.
