China's online brokerage market for retail investors is growing rapidly; Barron's suggests investment in China's Huatai Securities (6886.HK) which is one of the online brokerage market's best positioned companies; the firm is China's largest brokerage by trading volume and offers low commission rates; its business is also diversified with its wealth management unit increasing assets under management by 44% in 2016; Barron's cautions investors on the firm's earnings, with comparable net profit down 44% in the first three quarters however analysts are expecting an earnings increase of 21% in 2017. Source
26 executives associated with Ezubao were on trial this week in China; the fraud case included Anhui Yucheng and Yucheng Global, operators of the online platform, along with other company executives and platform employees; Ezubao has reportedly taken in over 50 billion yuan ($7.3 billion) in fraudulent investments through two platforms Ezubao and Sesame Financial; a final result in the case has not yet been announced. Source
The fund, which was set up as storage for excess cash from online spending, has now reached $165.6 billion in assets under management; this now exceeds the amount of JP Morgan's largest money market fund which is $150 billion; since the fund is so big it allows Ant Financial, Alibaba affiliate, to negotiate better rates with banks for capital; while many believe the likes of Google and Facebook could enter the market they have yet to do so. Source
RateSetter Australia was the country's first P2P lending platform for retail investors; it has now announced $100 million in funding; the firm has seen a significant increase in investment from millennial investors seeking yield alternatives to low rate savings accounts and volatile stock markets; concurrently with data on its origination milestone it also released research conducted among RateSetter's investors on millennial investing. Source
Alibaba financial services subsidiary Ant Financial says it is interested in expanding to Japan; the financial services firm has been expanding in the Eastern World with ventures in Thailand, Indonesia, Australia The Philippines and Korea; it already has plans to double the number of Japanese stores that accept Alipay to more than 45,000 this year; while further details on an expansion timeline have not been released, a spokesperson for the firm has said, "In Japan, there is a strong need of financial services from small and micro enterprises, and Ant is willing to share its standards and experience with local partners." Source
MaiziJinfu, a Chinese Internet-based financial services provider, has raised funds in a Series B funding round; Huang Darong, CEO and chairman of MaiziJinfu, said, "The new fund will be used to incubate upgraded internet finance products as well as to further the company's talent development."; the announcement was made at the Internet Finance Development and Innovative Application Forum in Shanghai; MaiziJinfu has served over two million clients from diverse industries, with approximately 20 billion RMB of funding; it is also the parent company of UniFi which offers a financing product for international students in the US and Canada, supporting them with funding for various purposes that is difficult to obtain because they lack standard Social Security records. Source
Ning Tang, founder and CEO of CreditEase, has received the China Financial Literacy Distinguished Contribution Award; the honor was awarded at the 2nd China Financial Literacy Annual Conference; as an institution, CreditEase was also honored with the China Financial Literacy Distinguished Contribution Award; the awards recognize Ning Tang and CreditEase for their broad commitment and contribution to financial inclusion, wealth management, fintech innovation and public financial education. Source
Shanghai Securities News reported on market statistics and a continued commitment by Chinese authorities this week to manage fraudulent financing activities in the country; 5,197 new criminal cases were reported in 2016 involving 251.1 billion yuan ($36.5 billion); Yang Yuzhu, a Chinese regulatory director involved with a meeting of regulators, says, "The cases severely destroyed the order of financial markets."; in 2016 China approved the arrest of over 9,000 people on suspicion of illegal solicitation of public deposits and it prosecuted over 14,000; regulators plan to continue with enforcement action; they are also considering prohibiting organizations and individuals from publishing investment-related advertisements and are requesting provincial governments to closely examine potential illegal funding activities from May to July. Source
Tencent has reported plans in a white paper for the development of a blockchain platform; the firm says it plans to use the platform for offering digital asset management, authentication and shared economies, among other services; the firm also says the platform will help it to collaborate with other firms; in its white paper, Tencent also advocates for blockchain development and government integration in China. Source
New statistics show e-commerce spending in China continues to rise, with projections estimating the average digital buyer will spend RMB12,198 ($1,836) online in 2017, an increase of 7% over 2016; growth is expected to slow to 5% or less after 2017; the forecasts could point to a peak for China's e-commerce giants and also serve as a catalyst for the broad ranging expansion of China's top e-commerce companies. Source