China To Reportedly Impose Over $1B Fine On Jack Ma's Ant Group Ending 2-Year Long Regulatory Overhaul

Ending Jack Ma’s Ant Group‘s two-year-long regulatory feud, Chinese authorities will reportedly impose a fine of more than $1 billion on the billionaire’s fintech company.

What Happened: China’s central bank – which has been driving the revamp at Ant after the Xi Jinping-led administration scuttled the company's $37 billion IPO at the last minute in 2020 – is the regulator readying the fine, sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters. 

Ant Group did not immediately respond to Benzinga’s request for comment.

See Also: Once Touted Biggest IPO Of All Time, Alibaba’s Fintech Affiliate Ant Financial Suffers 63% Profit Decline

The People’s Bank of China has been in informal communication with Ant about the fine over the past few months, as per three of the sources. It plans to hold more such discussions with other regulators later this year and will reportedly announce the decision as soon as the second quarter of next year.

The report added that Ant’s fine could set the stage for ending the fintech company’s long regulatory overhaul to secure a financial holding company license and eventually revive its IPO plans.

This came after Ant's affiliate company Alibaba Group Holdings BABA received a record fine of 18 billion yuan ($2.51 billion) for antitrust violations last year.

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