Chinese regulators tell fintech groups to fix ‘problems’

Chinese officials have told 13 of the country’s biggest tech companies to “rectify prominent problems” on their platforms, reported the Financial Times.

Tencent, ByteDance and the fintech affiliates of Baidu, JD.com, Meituan and Didi were among the group summoned to a meeting with officials from the People’s Bank of China and other banking, securities and foreign exchange regulators, according to state news agency Xinhua.

Officials demanded that the platforms increase their capital to cover 30% of the loans they offer jointly with banks, after imposing similar changes on Ant. The measures were in line with the recent guidelines issued to the broader fintech sector.

The “improper links” between payment services and other financial services must be broken, the regulators said. This included not allowing payment platforms to promote loans too aggressively, cutting off an important advertising channel for the companies.