Ant Financial: The World’s Largest Financial Services Firm
Plus: Retail Stock Trading, Banker to the VCs, Private vs Public
Issue #10 of Net Interest and welcome to the 135 new readers who have joined us since last week. Every Friday I distil 25 years of experience looking at financial institutions into an email that explores key themes trending in the industry. If you’re reading this, but haven’t yet subscribed, join nearly 2,500 smart, curious people by signing up here:
Ant Financial: The World’s Largest Financial Services Firm
A little under three years ago I took a train down the east coast of China, from Beijing to Hangzhou. I was going to visit Alibaba Group and its affiliate Ant Financial to learn how the two were shaping the Chinese payments industry.
Their presence was everywhere.
In Beijing I had been shown how easy it was to do online shopping using their payments functionality, and I experienced for myself how easy it was to do offline shopping using a phone and QR code. My kids were marginally excited by the souvenirs I brought home; I was much more excited by the way I bought them. At a restauran…