Ant Group, China’s biggest digital payment platform Alipay has opened a neobank here.
It is called Anext Bank and will target small and mid-sized enterprises (SMEs), it stated in today’s statement. To provide financial solutions to SMEs who want to trade overseas, it has also partnered with Proxtera trading platform.
“In the face of rapid digital acceleration, business models are changing rapidly and pivoting to be digital-first. Toh Su Mei, CEO of Anext Bank, stated that financial services must evolve to meet the needs of SMEs.
The bank is currently soft launching a dual currency business account. It will include features like remote onboarding and daily interests. It will be available widely starting in the third quarter.
This news comes after a similar move in Hong Kong, where Ant Group launched consumer-focused Fintech Ant Bank in 2020.
Jack Ma, a billionaire, controls Ant Group. Alibaba owns about a third of the company. It had originally planned to raise $35 billion in 2020. However, Chinese regulators thwarted those plans.
