BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s Ant Financial Services Group has received approval to issue consumer credit-backed securities to institutional investors and the securities are currently in the pricing process, the company told Reuters on Monday.
Ant Financial said it will increase capital and take other actions including business cooperation to gradually reduce its leverage ratio to meet regulatory requirements.
Ant Financial is the financial affiliate of e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.
Ant Financial is the largest issuer of consumer loan securities in China, accounting for 60 percent of all issues in 2017, according to Reuters calculations based on data from China Securitisation Analytics.
The company offers various types of credit products to users on its Alipay platform.
(Reporting by Shu Zhang and Elias Glenn, editing by Louise Heavens)
