ANALYSIS-Chinese retail banks gain consumer lending clout as fintechs fall out of favour

Ant, Tencent-backed WeBank and JD.com Inc have become powerful third-party intermediaries who draw in borrowers, take as much as a third of lending profit margins while the banks they partner with passively supply the credit and have limited knowledge of their borrowers. Ant alone was involved in 1.7 trillion yuan of consumer loans as of end-June, its IPO prospectus showed

BEIJING: Chinese banks are gearing up to seize back lost business in consumer loans from fintech players like Ant Group, emboldened by a regulatory sea change that is making them more competitive while more hurdles are created for their online rivals.

The new rules, which come on the back of Beijing's shock canning of Ant's $37 billion IPO in November, include the scrapping of limits on credit card interest rates and plans to greatly restrict the consumer data collection that has enabled the rapid growth of online lending platforms.