Ant Financial deal

POSTAL Savings Bank of China (PSBC), the State bank with the largest branch network, said it had signed a strategic cooperation agreement with fintech giant Ant Financial yesterday.

The pact with the Alibaba-backed financial firm will focus on areas such as digital payments, online lending, rural finance and corporate finance, the bank said in a statement. The partners will also set up a joint lab to explore fintech innovations, and extend cooperation in areas such as Internet security and taking bank branches digital.

Property bubbles

THE government will take further steps to curb property bubbles, stabilizing housing as well as land prices to fend off financial risks, the Party chief of the central bank said.

China will step up disclosure and disposal of nonperforming bank loans, Guo Shuqing was quoted as saying in an online post released by People’s Bank of China (PBOC) on Tuesday. Guo, the PBOC party chief, is also the top regulator for the banking and insurance sectors. Guo said that China will also actively support deep reform of small and medium-sized banks, and encourage them to replenish capitals via various channels.

WeChat’s new project

POPULAR social media platform WeChat launched a project Tuesday to work with tourism authorities worldwide to digitalize services to tap the country’s growing outbound tourism market.

The platform has teamed up with partners to set up the Welcome with WeChat Alliance to leverage its ecosystem to help participants meet the diversifying demands of Chinese travelers abroad. The alliance will support members in digitalizing their content and services. The combined monthly active users of WeChat topped 1.15 billion by the end of September. China is the world’s largest outbound tourism market, with some 150 million overseas trips made last year, up 14.7 percent compared with 2017.