Ant Financial to open its online bank in June

Ant Financial, Alibaba's finance arm, is planning to launch its online bank service branded as MYBank in June this year. The launch news was disclosed by Yuan Leiming, Ant Financial's general manager in an interview in Beijing on Thursday.

Ant Financial will own around 30% stakes in MYBank. Other shareholders will be Shanghai Fosun Industrial Technology Development Co. Ltd, a subsidiary of Fosun International Ltd, with a 25% stake. A subsidiary of Wanxiang Group will hold 18% and Ningbo Jinrun Asset Management will own 16%.

MYBank's launch will help Alibaba Group Holdings to build a full-fledged internet finance platform. Ant said that it will offer services like banking, loans and credit, insurance, payment systems and investment to new tiers of Chinese society.

The company, Ant Financial also officially rolled out an index that tracks eCommerce activities to gauge firm's performance.

Meanwhile, Tencent had also launched China's first private internet bank called 'WeBank' in December 2014. The bank would allow the online businesses to give out loans to their customers and merchants without routing them through a bank.

Ant Financial also introduced an index, CSI Taojin Big Data 100 Index that tracks e-commerce activities determine firms' performance on Thursday. The index weighs industries according to the growth in online transactions, price levels and the supply-demand situation in China.

Ant said that the CSI Taojin Big Data 100 Index, the first in China to tap e-commerce data is composed of 100 stocks in sectors such as household durables, textiles and apparel, food and hospitality.