Michael Bogner: Mr. Preston Finn gives us a quick look at China's banking situation

Innsbruck, Austria, Schutzenstrasse 46D, July 10, 2014 (Newswire.com) - The war of words between China’s top bankers and entrepreneur Jack Ma, executive chairman of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group, continues to swirl around the issue of Internet finance.

The Internet finance sector includes companies that provide lending, wealth management, payments and money transfers over the Internet.
China’s Big Four banks — Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank, Agricultural Bank of China, and Bank of China — have long dominated the nation’s finance sector. Alibaba, one of the top three Internet companies on the mainland, wants to encroach on their turf.

Mr. Preston Finn gives us a quick look at China's banking situation regarding tech companies.

Preston Finn, Senior Portfolio Specialist

“If Steve Jobs were still alive, many people might hate him” as innovative ideas that challenge the status quo will always be vilified, Mr. Finn said.

The People’s Bank of China halted Alipay’s virtual credit card business while it was still in the pipeline, stating that Alibaba didn’t advise the central bank of the new business and didn’t provide a plan of risk controls. Offline payments effected by scanning Quick Response Code were also stopped due to security concerns.

Banks circle the wagons
Zhang Jianguo, president of China Construction Bank, said Internet finance raises overall financial costs, which would be harmful for the economy. He called for fairer competition between the banks and Internet companies, implying that regulations on market entry, business licenses and operation oversight for upstart challengers weren’t tough enough.
“It’s impossible to achieve a win-win situation here,” Hu Zheyi, vice president of the bank, said last month.

Li Zhenjiang, vice president of AgBank, said Internet finance doesn’t change the financial risks of traditional financing, but the risks are amplified by the greater number of people involved with the Internet.

Yi Huiman, president of ICBC, said his bank would continue its “win-win partnership” with third-party payment companies like Alipay, which is controlled by Alibaba. It was damning with faint praise. China’s largest bank was the first among of the Big Four to cut existing interfaces that allowed its bankcard users to pay via Alipay in the bank’s system. The number of interfaces was trimmed from five to one.

The bank said the move won’t affect users if Alipay “cooperates.” Media reports had said some ICBC customers were not able to register their cards for Alipay’s Express Payment service, which allows users make online payments with registered bankcards in steps more streamlined than the bank’s own Internet banking system.

About a month ago, the Big Four banks lowered the cap on payments per transaction as well as total payments per day that users can make via Alipay.
ICBC and China Construction Bank cut the payment limit per transaction from 50,000 yuan (US$8,107) to 5,000 yuan, while AgBank and Bank of China pared their limits to 10,000 yuan from 50,000 yuan.

ICBC’s chief risk control officer has accused Alipay of operating “illegally” for three years. The bank, he said, could be liable for potential customer losses.
Ma responded that if the statement were true, ICBC would have been sailing close to the wind.

Preston Finn ( senior portfolio specialist )
Michael Bogner Austria