The Chinese central bank has flagged the issuance of China’s second license for personal credit ratings operations to a company partially owned by smartphone-maker Xiaomi and JD.com fintech subsidiary JDD.
The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) announced on Friday 4 December that it had accepted Pudao Credit Co., Ltd.’s (朴道征信有限公司) application for a personal credit operations license.
Should PBOC approve the application, Pudao Credit will become the second licensed personal credit ratings agency in China after Baihang Credit – an agency which was first licensed in early 2018 and operates under PBOC’s aegis.
According to the announcement Pudao Credit has registered capital of 1 billion yuan and its registered address is in Beijing’s Chaoyang District, while its site of operations is the Sanxing Tower (三星大厦).
Pudao Credit’s main shareholders include:
- Beijing Financial Holdings Group (北京金融控股集团有限公司), which holds a 35% stake in the company;
- JDD (25%);
- Xiaomi (17.5%);
- Megvii (17.5%);
- Beijing Juxin Youxiang Enterprise Management Center (Limited Partnership)(北京聚信优享企业管理中心（有限合伙）) (5%).
Senior executives of the company will include Zhao Yihan (赵以邗) as chairman. Zhao is currently the vice-chair of PBOC’s Credit Reference Centre (央行征信中心), and previously served as the deputy-governor of the Wuhan branch of PBOC.
Dong Ximiao (董希淼), chief-researcher with MUCFC, said to Diyi Caijing that Pudao credit would play a complementary role to the Credit Reference Centre, and help to drive the creation of a more comprehensive personal credit system, which would have a positive impact on the development of the Chinese finance sector and efforts to create a full social credit system.
Liu Xinhai (刘新海), vice-chair of the Professional Committee of Credit Management of the China Mergers & Acquisitions Association, said that PBOC’s review of Pudao’s license application indicated that efforts to further expand the development of China’s credit system were ongoing.
“The granting of a second personal credit ratings license will help to drive the creation of a multi-tier, pluralised and open credit system.”
