(Yicai Global) Dec. 16 -- Ant Group has been doing its very best to deal with the outcome of China halting its USD35 billion initial public offering at the start of last month, according to Executive Chairman Eric Jing.    

The world’s largest fintech firm has “made every effort to deal with the aftermath of the suspension of its listing under the guidance of supervision,” Jing said at the fourth China Internet Finance Forum in Beijing yesterday, adding that Ant will “further conform to regulatory requirements.” 

Jing was speaking publicly for the first public time since the Shanghai Stock Exchange suspended Ant’s impending IPO, which would have been the world’s biggest, citing new administrative requirements. China’s regulators then issued new rules to rein in the fintech sector, assailing it for threatening financial security and traditional banking.

“China's financial technology has grown up in the era of national reform and opening-up, innovation and development,” Jing said. “Ant Group is a beneficiary.”

Maintaining financial security and averting risks are the prerequisites for all innovation and development in the financial field, he said, adding that compliance with supervision guarantees the stable and sustainable development of fintech.

Jing said the Hangzhou-based company has set three requirements for itself: to deepen the understanding of the relationship between security and development, and between system security and individual security, to steadily improve corporate governance, further strengthen information disclosure and enhance transparency and to implement comprehensive risk management in each of its businesses.

Ant will continue in its role of a financial component, focusing on serving small and micro groups, boost investment in technological innovation, especially core areas, and enhance research, development and application of leading basic technologies such as databases, blockchain, intelligent risk control and smart security, Jing said.

China recently stepped up its supervision of internet companies. Just as banks may be too big to fail, the same may apply to big digital platforms, Zhu Guangyao, a former deputy finance minister, said at the same forum. The sensible oversight of these platforms is a common challenge facing the world’s regulators, he said.

Editor: Ben Armour