(Yicai Global) Aug. 5 -- Mirroring two other Chinese internet titans Tencent Holdings and ByteDance Technology, Meituan has raised the registered capital of its small loans unit, a necessary step in expanding their online lending activities across China’s provincial borders, the Paper reported.

China’s small loans providers need to have CNY5 billion (USD774 million) of authorized capital to conduct lending operations between provinces, the report said yesterday, citing regulations issued last November.

Lifestyle services provider Meituan has boosted the capital of Chongqing Sankuai Microcredit to CNY5 billion from CNY3.06 billion, according to data from corporate information platform Tianyancha. Tencent and ByteDance, which owns TikTok, increased that of their affiliated small lenders to CNY5 billion in April and June, respectively.

The increases reflect their optimism about the prospects of the online loans business, which has the potential to be implemented nationwide, said Su Xiaorui, a consumer finance industry expert.

Editor: Futura Costaglione