Baidu entering online banking fray
(19 November 2015 – China) China’s answer to Google, Baidu is partnering with China Citic Bank Corp. (CCBC) for a share of the online lending market.
Citic Bank will own a controlling stake in the planned Baixin Bank Co., the it told Hong Kong’s stock exchange. The planned registered capital is 2 billion yuan (A$439 million) with regulatory approvals still required.
The nation’s biggest lenders, such as Industrial & Commercial Bank of China Ltd., are facing increasing competition, including from online ventures. The government is pulling apart restrictions such as interest-rate controls that protected banks’ margins and allowing more private money to trickle into a mostly state-controlled industry.
Baidu is likely to take a bigger stake in the planned venture with Citic Bank than fellow Internet giants Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Tencent Holdings Ltd. hold in their private banks according to reports.
The Chinese search engine has a mobile application boasting 500 million users with 45 million activated accounts using its application payment function.
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