When Jack Ma vowed in June to shake up the established order of Chinese finance, the country’s slow-moving, risk-averse banks had every reason to be nervous.
His ecommerce group Alibaba, with its 500m registered users, has already reshaped the landscape in China’s retail industry. With its first foray into banking – a micro-loan business – growing quickly, Alibaba’s outspoken founder and chairman let it be known what he thought of banks.
“China’s finance industry, especially the banking industry, only serves 20 per cent of clients. I see the 80 per cent of businesses that have not been served,” Mr Ma wrote in the People’s Daily. “The financial industry needs disruption. It needs outsiders to come in and transform it.”