U.S. looks into restricting Ant Group, Tencent payments - Bloomberg
Oct. 7, 2020 12:55 PM ET|About: Tencent Holdings Limited (TCEHY)|By: Kim Khan, SA News Editor
In a move that could be similar to its crackdown on TikTok, the U.S. is exploring restricting the payment systems of Alibaba's (BABA, +1.6%) Ant Group and Tencent (OTCPK:TCEHY, +0.1%) due to security concerns, Bloomberg reports.
U.S. officials are worried Chinese fintech platforms will dominate global digital payments, giving China access to banking and personal data of hundreds of millions of people, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg.
Ant Group's Alipay and Tencent's WeChat Pay have more than 600M users in China.
There is no indication President Trump has been briefed and any move like this would require his OK, Bloomberg reports.
Hedge fund manager Kyle Bass tweeted last week that "Ant Group and Ten Cent are Clear and Present Dangers to US National Security that now threaten us more than any other issue".
Ant Group is gearing up for Hong Kong and Shanghai listings, where the company is reportedly seeking $35B based on a $250B+ valuation.
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