(Yicai Global) March 12 -- Ant Group has published the financial self-discipline guidelines that the Chinese fintech giant will apply to its digital platforms four months after risk-averse regulators moved to rein in the sprawling fintech sector, forcing Ant to overhaul its operations.

The rules cover institutional access, platform governance, protection for consumer rights and data privacy and apply across the board, from wealth management and insurance to loans and credit.

"We fully appreciate that a responsible digital finance platform has to do more than putting operational compliance, risk prevention and consumer protection as our businesses’ baseline principles,” General Counsel Jonathan Zhou said today.

“We should also take serious consideration of our ethical and social responsibilities, and play an active role in driving healthier, more inclusive and more people-oriented development of the fintech industry,” Zhou said.

“This is why we are sharing with the fintech industry these self-disciplined codes for our digital finance platform, which we have been following and will continue to follow, to advocate for the healthier development of the industry," he added.

Ant has quickly grown into one of China’s biggest financial services firms, serving 500 million customers, 30 million small businesses, 100 banks, 90 insurers and 170 asset managers. Yet it claims to only act as an intermediary and as a result shirks the responsibilities that traditional entities must bear, irking the authorities.

Watchdogs Bite

In November, regulators shelved Ant’s blockbuster initial public offering just two days before the shares were supposed to start trading and a day after they had summoned founder Jack Ma and senior executives for talks.

The central bank and three financial watchdogs then called in the Hangzhou-based company for further talks in December and ordered the firm to conduct a major shake-up of its payment services. These include making its transactions more transparent, obtaining the necessary licenses for its credit businesses and setting up a financial holding company.

At the time, Ant said it would abide by all rules and regulations and embrace stable innovation, supervision, service to the real economy and openness for mutual benefit.

True to its word, Ant founded China’s first provincial-level fintech ethics committee in its base of Zhejiang province in March, which has laid out seven guiding principles to steer the sector. These are to be people-centric, innovative, fair and inclusive, open and win-win, prudent and secure, mindful of ethics and socially responsible.

Ethical Need

Promoting the formation of fintech ethics has become a key part of the construction of China's financial system, Ouyang Rihui, deputy dean at the Central University of Finances and Economics' China Center for Internet Economy Research, told financial news site JRJ.com.

From now on, Ant’s wealth management site will perform a full risk assessment of investors and only recommend products in line with his/her financial situation, crack down on misleading marketing and undertake to educate investors. And its loan platform must not lend money to minors and others who cannot afford it, the firm added.

Ant will also set up a professional mechanism for institutions' access and withdrawal, safeguard data security and user privacy, treat all businesses fairly and open up channels for receiving complaints and feedback from all parts of society, it said.

Editor: Kim Taylor