Alibaba's Jack Ma gets into a tussle with big Chinese banks

NEW YORK: China is the scene of a growing rivalry; In one corner is billionaire Jack Ma's Alibaba, which holds the title as the country's biggest online retailer. In the other are China's biggest banks. This week, Alibaba is launching MYbank, an online lender that will tap into Chinese savers' record $7.8 trillion of deposits and a banking revenue stream that's forecast to double by 2020. Banks have been striking back by pushing into the business Ma pioneered in China. The moves are blurring the lines between banking and e-commerce as China's government continues encouraging competition in the finance industry.
“China's banks have woken up and realised that the challenge from Alibaba's entry into banking is for real,“ said David He, a Hong Kong-based partner and managing director at Boston Consulting Group. “For them, doing ecommerce is a defense as well as a counterattack.“

Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, which as the world's most profitable company dwarfs Alibaba's net income by more than 10 times, set up a platform allowing retailers to sell the bank's customers wine, shampoo, appliances and more.