TUESDAY 6 AUGUST 2019

Jack Ma’s loan machine is

changing Chinese banking

Alibaba founder’s app lends to small businesses in minutes

MYbank analyses real-time transactions to gain insights into creditworthiness (AFP)

STAFF REPORTER

Jack Ma’s online bank is leading a quiet revolution in the way China lends to small businesses, taking aim at
a credit bottleneck that has held back Asia’s largest economy for decades.

Using real-time payments data and a risk-management system that analyses more than 3,000 variables, the
Alibaba founder’s four-year-old MYbank has lent 2 trillion yuan (£240bn) to nearly 16 million small
companies. Borrowers apply with a few taps on a smartphone and receive cash almost instantly if they’re
approved. The whole process takes three minutes and involves zero human bankers. The default rate so far:

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