Alibaba Partners Over 25 Banks, Credit Firms To Support Sme Financing

BEIJING, Jan 13 (Bernama) -- Chinese e-commerce platform, Alibaba.com, has partnered over 25 financial institutions and credit reporting firms globally to provide innovative financing services. The services could help alleviate the funding challenges faced by the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) engaged in cross-border trade. Alibaba.com is the leading platform for global wholesale trade and part of the Alibaba Group. In a statement Wednesday, it said the collaboration between Alibaba.com and financial institutions has already resulted in a series of innovative lending services for SMEs. It said partners from mainland China include MYBank, a Chinese Internet bank supported by Alibaba's affiliate Ant Financial Services Group, along with Ping An Insurance, Bank of China, China Merchants Bank, China Construction Bank and Bank of Shanghai. Alibaba.com also works with global credit reporting firms to provide trustworthy information and ratings to suppliers and buyers, it added. In addition, it said overseas buyers will be able to have more confidence when engaging with new suppliers, as they can review the credit profiles of Chinese suppliers through a new credit reporting service called credit.alibaba.com. Slated for launch later this year, the new service will provide corporate credit scores and ratings of Chinese suppliers that opt to join the programme. Drawing on input from the ratings firms, together with Alibaba.com's own data and other public records, it said the new service aimed to provide quality data which can be used as reference for online lending services by the financing partners to Chinese SME suppliers. Alibaba.com's president Sophie Wu said by building up the credit profiles of Chinese SMEs based on business-related data, Alibaba.com's credit reporting service can help overseas buyers identify trustworthy trading partners and provide Chinese suppliers access to innovative financing options. "It's an initiative that shows how we strive to better support the financial needs of SMEs that may be facing cash flow challenges and supply chain financing," Wu said. -- BERNAMA