Ant’s Canceled China IPO Highlights Global Fintech Challenge
- Facebook’s Libra, Wirecard failure drive regulators to respond
- Some big fintech names have become ‘too big to fail’
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China’s torpedoing of Ant Group Co.’s initial public offering is the most dramatic example yet of the financial frictions emerging globally as fintech upstarts invade the territory of central banks and closely-regulated traditional lenders.
While the eleventh hour suspension of Ant’s record-busting IPO has more than a hint of Chinese internal politics about it, it also reflects the global struggle by regulators to catch up with the pace of innovation. Wake-up calls from Facebook Inc.’s Libra currency project to the collapse of Germany’s Wirecard AG are forcing that urgency.