China’s securities regulator has granted a licence to tech giant Tencent to distribute managed funds on the social media platform WeChat, which is used by almost 1 billion people.
According to an article on China’s state-owned media organ Xinhua Net, a Tencent subsidiary has obtained a licence from the China Securities Regulatory Commission’s Shenzhen Bureau to make “third-party fund sales” to WeChat users.
The license has been granted to ‘Teng An Fund Sales (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd’, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tencent Holdings, after earning approval from the regulatory commission to change its name from ‘Teng An Information Technology (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd’ in order to broaden the scope of its funds sales business.
Obtaining this licence will represent another step in Tencent’s “further foray into internet finance”, the article said.
“The green light for fund sales followed the official nod for Tencent to run insurance agent business last October, expanding the company's presence in the financial sector, ranging from payment to wealth management and microloan businesses,” it said.
Previously, Tencent only functioned as a wealth management platform called qian.qq.com, through which it linked customers to fund firms or third-party fund sales agencies, the article said.
The Tencent subsidiary will now have access to WeChat’s nearly 1 billion users who will be able to buy funds without exiting the app.
The COVID crisis has revealed how central banks have amplified wealth inequality in recent years, according to Schroders, with its head of A...
Australia has seen another drop in unemployment ahead of the removal of JobKeeper. ...
Joe Biden has been sworn in as President of the US and signalled that the superpower will retake its leading role in the climate debate. ...
Get notifications in real-time for staying up to date with content that matters to you.
Read More