Alipay, JD Digits, Didi remove all bank deposit products - report - Android

Regulators completely banned on Jan. 15 the sale of bank deposit products on third-party platforms to minimize risk from highly leveraged banks.

Alipay, JD Digits, and Didi Finance have completely removed all interest-bearing time deposit products from their apps, just days after authorities released relevant regulations. TechNode has independently confirmed that bank deposit products have been banished from Alipay.

Why it matters: The move is the culmination of a month-long crackdown on time deposits sold through third-party fintech platforms, which is part of a wider regulatory clampdown on fintech as regulators try to rein in China’s Big Tech.

• China’s Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) said on Jan. 27 that it will further scrutinize the cooperation of banks and insurers with fintech companies.

Full measures: As of Dec. 27, Alipay, JD Digits, and Didi Finance closed the app portals through which users could increase their existing deposits with banks, Chinese media reported. The outstanding balances will be returned to their accounts once the deposits have matured.

Half measures: On Dec. 15, Sun Tianqi, head of the central bank’s financial stability department, likened the partnership between banks and fintech platforms on deposit products to “driving without a license” and warned that regulatory supervision would intensify.

• On Dec. 18, Ant Group was the first of China’s biggest internet platforms to stop selling bank deposit products on the Alipay financial marketplace. The company said it was following regulator demands.
• Tencent, JD Digits, and Baidu’s Du Xiaoman followed three days later.
• The relevant portals could still be accessed by app users who had purchased the time deposits in the past.
• The CBIRC completely banned on Jan. 15 the sale of bank deposit products, including fixed-time deposits, on third-party internet platforms.

The risk: Small regional banks had been advertising time deposits with interest rates as high as 7% through fintech platforms.

• Regulators have said that these banks are high-risk and use online platforms to pump liquidity on their balance sheets and release pressure from their liabilities, without going through the more stringent process of interbank lending.
• After the Jan. 15 rules were implemented, small regional banks are still allowed to sell time deposits, but they must use their own channels to advertise and sell. Xin’an Bank, Blue Ocean Bank, and Wuxi Xishang Bank announced that they are moving their time deposits to their own apps, the Global Times reported.

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