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Fintech Ant Group Affiliate MYbank Is Planning to Expand Operations in China to Serve More Rural SMEs

China-based MYbank, an online private commercial bank and an affiliate of the Ant Group with a special focus on working with rural areas and SMEs, has revealed that it will be doubling the number of rural counties it serves in the coming years.

MYbank and its business partners plan to provide financial services in 2,000 rural counties in China within the next four years (by 2025). This should coincide with the bank’s 10th year since its launch. The initiative will ensure that rural clients are able to access the same modern financial services that are offered in some of China’s largest cities. The initiative should also help with addressing the last-mile problem in the rural finance sector.

This latest announcement from MYbank has come along with the release of the firm’s 2020 annual report, which reveals that MYbank had been serving 70% more (year-on-year) SMEs in 2020 when compared to 2019. This rise in activity has mainly been driven by MYbank’s expansion into rural areas.

Since launching operations 6 years back, MYbank has managed to serve clients in over 750 different counties across China.

Xiaolong Jin, President of MYbank, stated:

“We have continued to record remarkable growth in customer base for five consecutive years. We expect rural finance to play a significant role in advancing financial inclusion, and will further our efforts to make rural finance more accessible with our financial institution partners.”

MYbank has reportedly kept its non-performing loan ratio at around 1.52%, which is a lot lower than the 2.99% average for Chinese SME loans (as of June of last year).

MYbank had teamed up with the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce and the China Banking Association (in March 2020) in order to introduce a “Contactless Loans” initiative, in which 118 Chinese banking institutions had come together to provide supportive loans for small and medium-sized businesses as they tried to maintain operations.

The initiatve reportedly offered more than RMB 870 billion worth of loans to many different SMEs in sectors that were negatively impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak (including local dining and retail outlets).

During the 6 months since the campaign began, MYbank and its partner banks have waived RMB 665 million in interest payments for Chinese SMEs.

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Ant Group, the Fintech Division of Digital Commerce Giant Alibaba, Aims to be Carbon Neutral by 2030

Ant Group, the Fintech division of digital commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Limited (NYSE: BABA), has made a commitment to become carbon neutral by 2030.

Ant Group’s management stated that to achieve the carbon neutral target within the coming decade will involve establishing a carbon neutrality fund. This will be done to support the ongoing research and development (R&D) of renewables and other new “green” technologies. The digital payments firm will also be working cooperatively with other industry participants to support green finance initiatives.

Ant Group further noted that it would be looking into ways to leverage blockchain or distributed ledger tech (DLT) solutions to support the ongoing climate effort. These initiatives may involve using DLT to more accurately track the carbon reduction process.

Ant Group’s management stated that it has outlined a roadmap to neutralize direct and indirect emissions that are associated with the purchase of electricity (starting in 2021). By 2030, the firm intends to completely cancel out carbon emissions from other sources it doesn’t actually  own or manage. This may cover key areas including business travel and supply chain.

Ant’s pledge or commitment to lower carbon emissions has come after the announcement of the resignation of the firm’s CEO Simon Hu.

Ant Group’s Alipay virtual payment platform had launched the Ant Forest green project back in 2016. It was found within the app and aimed to encourage its users to actively participate in low-carbon emission activities, like making utility bill payments via online platforms and walking to work or other places instead of driving. Green energy points that are earned by users taking part in the project may be used for planting more trees or for protecting a particular area of land for biodiversity conservation.

Other large firms have also made commitments to become carbon neutral within the next 10-20 years. These efforts are all part of an international focus and effort to reduce the harmful effects of climate change.

Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) stated in July 2020 that it intends to become carbon neutral across all its main businesses by 2030.

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) previously pledged to become “carbon negative” in the coming decade. The tech giant said it plans to cut more carbon from the environment than it produces.

Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) co-founded The Climate Pledge in 2019. It’s basically a pledge to become net-zero carbon across its different businesses within the next 20 years, – which would be 10 years ahead of the Paris Agreement.

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