The head of the Chinese central bank has reiterated China’s commitment to cracking down on monopolies in the domestic fintech sector.
Yi Gang (易纲), head of the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), said that China will “continue to cooperate with anti-trust authorities to strike against monopolies, and actively respond to algorithmic discrimination and other forms of anti-competitive conduct.”
Yi made the remarks on 7 October at a meeting of the Bank for International Settlements, according to a report from Bloomberg.
Yi said that the Chinese central bank had required all tech platforms that provide financial services to establish holding companies, for the inclusion of all subsidiaries that engage in financial activities.
“In future the central bank will require the consolidation of the balance sheets of these share-controlled companies, as well as strengthen prudential regulation,” said Yi.
The PBOC governor also outlined three guiding principles for fintech regulation in future, including:
- Requiring that financial enterprises obtain operating licenses.
- Requiring the establishment of firewalls between different business departments, such as insurance and wealth management, in order to prevent cross-departmental risk.
- Severing direct ties between non-banking and banking services.
