Ant Financial pushes rural finance service

Ant Financial Services Group, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd's financial-services affiliate, has ramped up its expansion in rural finance - with the company announcing on Tuesday that it will provide so-called acquaintance-based loan services, big data-based online loan services and supply chain financing for the rural population in China.

Acquaintance-based loan services is a new model created by Ant Financial for rural financing, in which it screens loan applicants with little or no conventional credit history by talking to their offline business partners, customers and even other people in the villages.

Ant Financial said the move accords with a company strategy to boost economic growth in rural areas and the Hangzhou-based internet finance major has set an ambitious goal to lend about one trillion yuan ($143.89 billion) to rural customers in the next three years.