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China Open To Work With Foreign Allies On Antitrust Issues

By  |  January 28, 2021

China’s regulators want to step up exchanges with international counterparts and strengthen co-operation on anti-trust issues, data treatment and consumer protection, China’s central bank vice governor said in a Financial Times opinion piece.

Pan Gongsheng said authorities wanted to ensure fintech regulation was effective, measured and would guard against cross-border regulatory arbitrage and contagion.

Fintech was still finance in essence, so the principle of “same business, same rules” should apply, he added in the piece published on Wednesday, January 27.

“We need regulation that emphasises the substance not the form of a company. The aim is to align business rules and standards with regulation to fend off arbitrage,” he wrote.

His comments come as China tightens scrutiny of its tech giants, particularly those that have expanded into financial services, by drafting new anti-monopoly rules and guidelines and reversing a once laissez-faire approach.

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