Regulators have been clamping down on Ant Group, even cancelling its expected $35 billion twin IPO late last year.

Ant Group and Alibaba founder Jack Ma(Frederic Legrand - COMEO/Shutterstock)

Feb 3, 2021 at 3:58 p.m. UTCUpdated Feb 3, 2021 at 4:01 p.m. UTC

Jack Ma’s Ant Group Agrees to Restructure After Pressure From China’s Regulators: Report

Chinese regulators have agreed a restructuring plan with Ant Group that will combine all its business segments, including its blockchain arm, into a financial holding company.

As a financial holding company, Ant would be subject to capital requirements like those for banks, according to a Bloomberg report citing people familiar with the matter.The group had previously proposed only including its financial segments in the holding company. An official announcement on plan is expected before the start of China’s New Year holiday on Feb. 12.The restructure is part of a Chinese government campaign to increase supervision of the fintech sector.In November, Ant Group’s expected $35 billion initial public offering was suspended on both the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges supposedly due to changes in China’s regulatory environment for fintech firms.Jack Ma, who founded Alibaba and its affiliate Ant Group, had been keeping a low-profile since October when he criticized China’s financial system and its state-dominated banking sector at a Shanghai event.Ant Group has its own blockchain, AntChain, building off it to launch a cross-border trading platform in September.