Ant Financial consumer lending reaches US$95bil

HONG KONG: Ant Financial’s consumer lending has reached at least 600 billion yuan (US$95bil) despite the affiliate of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd facing a tougher environment for securitising its loans, people familiar with the matter said.

From the start of 2017 until this month, Ant’s consumer lending had doubled via its Huabei and Jiebei units even as the government reduced quotas for new asset-backed securities (ABS) that could underpin such loans, one of the people said, asking not to be named as the matter is private.