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Jack Ma's debt giant grinds to halt as China curbs micro-loans

Fintech

Jack Ma's debt giant grinds to halt as China curbs micro-loans

Bloomberg Published on Tue, Jan 09, 2018 / 7:42 AM GMT+8

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(Jan 9): After selling billions of dollars of debt backed by consumer loans last year, Chinese billionaire Jack Ma’s Ant Financial is pausing such fundraising as the government steps up curbs on micro lending.

The company hasn’t sold any asset-backed securities since early December, according to data compiled by Bloomberg and China Securitization Analytics. That marks an abrupt shift after Ant Financial issued a record 238 billion yuan ($48.6 billion) in 2017 of such securities backed by consumer loans. It comes after authorities announced on Dec 1 they were requiring micro lenders to consolidate ABS into their balance sheets.