騰訊與阿里巴巴將分別推出信用卡
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.
中國兩大互聯網集團阿里巴巴(Alibaba)和騰訊(Tencent)各自宣佈推出一款新的信用卡，從而進一步深入中國金融服務業。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.
這兩家企業正在從電子商務、社交媒體到打車應用、約會應用的多個領域展開競爭，此舉將延伸兩家的競爭範圍。隨着本週中國銀監會宣佈確定首批5家民營銀行試點方案，預計阿里巴巴和騰訊最終都將獲得銀行牌照。就目前而言，阿里巴巴與騰訊都將與中信銀行(Citic Bank)合作推出一款信用卡。按資產規模計，中信銀行是中國第11大銀行。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“虛擬”信用卡將在下週在“支付寶錢包”(Alipay Wallet)應用內亮相。阿里巴巴表示，該卡的實際運營方將是中信銀行(Citic)，但申請人的信用可靠性將首次純粹基於消費者的在線購物記錄。
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.
阿里巴巴宣佈推出信用卡還不到24小時，騰訊表示也將通過其熱門通訊應用微信(WeChat)推出自己的信用卡，最高信貸額度爲5000元人民幣（合814美元）。騰訊新推信用卡的運營方同爲中信銀行，但與阿里巴巴的信用卡不同的是，中信銀行也將以傳統的信用審查方式對騰訊的信用卡進行髮卡審批。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.
自從去年上線“餘額寶”(Yu’e Bao)以來，阿里巴巴一直走在互聯網企業躋身金融服務業的最前列。本質爲貨幣市場基金的餘額寶提供比國有銀行固定存款利率高几倍的收益率，自推出9個月以來幫助阿里巴巴吸收了5000億元人民幣的資金。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)在一份關於這兩種信用卡發行的研究報告中表示：“表面看來，似乎是傳統商業銀行正通過合作，到互聯網領域分一杯羹。”“But underneath, this looks to us as part of a bigger trend where internet companies are expanding into lending and banking.”
“但在本質上，我們認爲這反映出了互聯網企業擴張進入貸款與銀行業務領域的更大趨勢。”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.
互聯網企業的努力已推動銀行業放開管制。中國央行行長週二表示，政府制定的存款利率上限很可能在一兩年後放開。這是迄今最明確的利率放開（利率市場化的最後一步）時間框架。
