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Alibaba and Tencent, China’s two largest internet conglomerates, are pushing further into the country’s financial services industry by each announcing the launch of a new credit card.
中国两大互联网集团阿里巴巴(Alibaba)和腾讯(Tencent)各自宣布推出一款新的信用卡，从而进一步深入中国金融服务业。
The duelling credit cards will extend competition between the two, which runs the gamut from ecommerce and social media to rival taxi hailing and dating apps. Both Alibaba and Tencent are expected to be among the companies eventually granted banking licences under a pilot project to set up five banks owned by private companies, announced this week by China’s banking regulator. For the time being, each company is partnering with Citic Bank, China’s 11th largest by assets, to launch a credit card.
这两家企业正在从电子商务、社交媒体到打车应用、约会应用的多个领域展开竞争，此举将延伸两家的竞争范围。随着本周中国银监会宣布确定首批5家民营银行试点方案，预计阿里巴巴和腾讯最终都将获得银行牌照。就目前而言，阿里巴巴与腾讯都将与中信银行(Citic Bank)合作推出一款信用卡。按资产规模计，中信银行是中国第11大银行。
Alibaba’s “virtual” card will be launched next week in the Alipay Wallet app. Citic will operate the card, but for the first time, the creditworthiness of applicants will be based solely on consumers’ online shopping histories, Alibaba said.
阿里巴巴的“虚拟”信用卡将在下周在“支付宝钱包”(Alipay Wallet)应用内亮相。阿里巴巴表示，该卡的实际运营方将是中信银行(Citic)，但申请人的信用可靠性将首次纯粹基于消费者的在线购物记录。
Within 24 hours of Alibaba’s announcement, Tencent said it too would be offering its own cards, with a top credit limit of Rmb5,000 ($814), through its popular messaging app WeChat. Tencent’s card will also be operated by Citic Bank, but unlike Alibaba’s Citic will also handle the approval process for the cards by doing traditional credit checks.
阿里巴巴宣布推出信用卡还不到24小时，腾讯表示也将通过其热门通讯应用微信(WeChat)推出自己的信用卡，最高信贷额度为5000元人民币（合814美元）。腾讯新推信用卡的运营方同为中信银行，但与阿里巴巴的信用卡不同的是，中信银行也将以传统的信用审查方式对腾讯的信用卡进行发卡审批。
Alibaba has been at the forefront of the push into financial services by online companies since setting up Yu’e Bao, which means “leftover treasure”, last year. The money market fund pays multiples of the fixed deposit insurance rate paid by state banks, helping it attract Rmb500bn in the nine months since its launch.
自从去年上线“余额宝”(Yu’e Bao)以来，阿里巴巴一直走在互联网企业跻身金融服务业的最前列。本质为货币市场基金的余额宝提供比国有银行固定存款利率高几倍的收益率，自推出9个月以来帮助阿里巴巴吸收了5000亿元人民币的资金。
In a research note about the rival credit card offerings, Citi said: “On the surface, this looks like traditional banks are partnering to get a slice of the online action.
花旗(Citi)在一份关于这两种信用卡发行的研究报告中表示：“表面看来，似乎是传统商业银行正通过合作，到互联网领域分一杯羹。”
“But underneath, this looks to us as part of a bigger trend where internet companies are expanding into lending and banking.”
“但在本质上，我们认为这反映出了互联网企业扩张进入贷款与银行业务领域的更大趋势。”
That push has helped spur a liberalisation in the sector. China’s central bank chief said on Tuesday that the government ceiling on the country’s deposit rates would probably be lifted in one to two years – the most explicit timeframe to date for what would be the final step in freeing up banks to set their own interest rates.
互联网企业的努力已推动银行业放开管制。中国央行行长周二表示，政府制定的存款利率上限很可能在一两年后放开。这是迄今最明确的利率放开（利率市场化的最后一步）时间框架。
