Alibaba to expand personal finance offerings
E-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd is planning to expand the reach of its financial arm Ant Financial Services Group to provide more value-added personal wealth services, officials said.
Ant Financial, which operates electronic payment platform Alipay and online money-market fund Yu'ebao, launched on Tuesday a mobile application Ant Fortune - an independent wealth management platform outside of Alipay. With a single account on this application, the user can manage Yu'ebao, Zhaocaibao, a third-party financial services platform, and other investment funds.
The app has joined hands with Hangzhou Shumi Fund Sales Co Ltd to cover more than 900 funds provided by major fund firms. Investment threshold will be lowered to 1 yuan ($0.15) for Yu'ebao and 100 yuan for Zhaocaibao. The fund can be redeemed a day after the user sells it, two days shorter than the average time needed in other fund firms.
