19 Facts About Ant Financial

1.

Ant Group, formerly known as Ant Financial, is an affiliate company of the Chinese conglomerate Alibaba Group.

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2.

In September 2016, Ant Financial Group bought EyeVerify Inc and the company was rebranded as Zoloz.

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3.

In September 2017, Ant Financial Group formed a joint venture with Sir Li Ka-shing's CK Hutchison Holdings to launch a digital wallet service in Hong Kong.

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4.

In January 2020, Ant Financial Group applied for a digital banking license in Singapore.

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5.

In 2020, Ant Financial Group intended to complete an initial public offering, aiming to raise $34 billion by listing.

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6.

Ant Financial began working to address regulator concerns in January 2021, though no public plans for an IPO have been announced as of September 2021.

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7.

Ant Financial did not appear in public between October 2020 and January 2021.

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8.

Ant Financial Group was later ordered by the People's Bank of China on 26 December 2020 to "rectify" its business and formulate an implementation timetable.

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9.

The central bank summoned Ant Financial executives, saying that the Group lacked an effective governance mechanism, defied regulatory compliance requirements and engaged in regulatory arbitrage.

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10.

On 15 January 2021, Ant Group announced that it will overhaul its business structure in accordance with the Chinese central bank and its financial regulators' wishes.

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11.

In 2022, Ant Group launched a new investment advisory service named "Golden Choice Investment Consultants " in partnership with six financial institutions – Aegon-Industrial Fund, Southern Asset Management, Zhong Ou Asset Management, GF Fund Management, Harvest Wealth, and Caitong Securities.

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12.

On 14 February 2019, Ant Financial Group acquired the British international money transfer services provider WorldFirst for $700 million.

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13.

In 2015, Ant Financial Group launched Ant Financial Fortune, a wealth management platform.

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14.

Ant Financial Fortune offers hundreds of products from more than 80 Chinese fund institutions.

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15.

In June 2017, Ant Fortune launched a Fortune Account service platform that allows financial institutions to publish content and sell their financial products there.

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16.

In October 2018, Ant Financial Group launched the Xianghubao mutual protection plan that attracted 50 million people to sign on in half a year.

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17.

In September 2019, a product within the Alipay app called Ant Financial Forest received a Champions of the Earth award, the United Nation's highest environmental honor, for turning the green activities of half a billion people into real trees planted in some of China's most arid regions.

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18.

In 2021, Ant Financial Group revealed at the Digital China Summit that it has been cooperating with the People's Bank of China since 2017 to develop and test e-CNY, an official digital currency.

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19.

Ant Financial Group is among the early-stage investors of Megvii, a Beijing-based company known for providing artificial intelligence products to various businesses including Ant Financial itself.

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