(Yicai Global) March 22 -- Ant Financial Services Group, an affiliate of China's biggest e-commerce company Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., plans to team up its online credit platforms with traditional lenders so it can better evaluate borrower risk.

Partnered financial institutions will carry out risk management for Ant Credit Pay and Ant Cash Now, China Times reported, quoting Ant Financial as saying at the 2018 Consumer Finance Forum. The platforms will dictate loan limits based on banks' assessments, it added.

There are more and more companies offering consumer finance, but banks are still the driving force behind the sector, which had CNY8 trillion (USD1.3 trillion) outstanding as of the end of last year, with short-term loans in depository institutions making up more than 80 percent of the total.

Providers across the lending sector differ in their strengths, said Zeng Gang, deputy director at the National Institution for Finance and Development. Banks have experience in capital and risk control, but lack consumer applications and user data, which is a forte of e-commerce firms, he added, saying the cooperation will help the sector meet consumer expectations, better control risk and reduce costs.

Ant Credit Pay hit the market in 2015 and offers between CNY500 (USD79) to CNY50,000 in credit to users. Ant Cash Now was released the same year, but offers between CNY1,000 and CNY300,000  for a maximum period of 12 months.