CHINA'S ANT GROUP TO SHARE CREDIT DATA WITH CENTRAL BANK

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.

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Huabei, Ant Group’s credit service, said in a statement that consumer credit data it has collected will be included in the People’s Bank of China’s financial credit information database.

“The inclusion of Huabei’s credit information into the credit reporting system will help users’ credit information be more comprehensive,” Huabei said.

Consumers who do not authorize the sharing of credit data with the central bank will not be able to use Huabei’s service.

The company did not give a timeline for when it would provide all of its customer credit data to the central bank.

The move is part of various stricter regulations for Ant, which has been ordered to end its monopoly on information and behave more like a bank.