Ant Group fined $985 million by regulators in signal that tech crackdown may end

Chinese regulators are fining Ant Group 7.123 billion yuan ($985 million) for violating regulations in its payments and financial services, an indicator that over two years of scrutiny and crackdown on the firm that led it to scrap its planned public listing may have come to an end.

The People’s Bank of China imposed the fine on Friday, stating that Ant had violated laws and regulations related to corporate governance, financial consumer protection, participation in business activities of banking and insurance institutions, payment and settlement business, and attending to anti-money laundering obligations.

The fine comes over two years after regulators pulled the plug on Ant Group’s $34.5 billion IPO — which would have been the biggest of its time — in 2020. Since then, the company had been ordered to revamp its business and behave more like a financial holding company, as well as rectify unfair competition in its payments business.

“We will comply with the terms of the penalty in all earnestness and sincerity and continue to further enhance our compliance governance,” Ant Group said in a statement.

The move is widely seen as wrapping up Beijing’s probe into the firm and to allow Ant to revive its initial public offering. Chinese gaming firm Tencent, which operates messaging app WeChat, also received a 2.99 billion yuan fine ($414 million) for regulatory violations over its payments services, according to the central bank Friday, signaling that the crackdown on the Chinese technology sector could ease.

ZEN SOO, HONG KONG , MDT/AP