China orders fintech firms to stick to the rules as clampdown widens | ZAWYA MENA Edition

BEIJING – Chinese financial watchdogs on Thursday summoned 13 internet platforms engaged in finance business, including heavyweights Tencent and ByteDance, to order them to strengthen compliance with regulations, the central bank said. The move by the four regulators is part of widening efforts by Beijing to rein in the country’s massive internet “platform economy,” which includes an ongoing antitrust clampdown backed by President Xi Jinping. The country’s platform economy has grown rapidly and covers whole range of e-commmerce activities ranging from banking to shopping and food delivery. “Internet platforms have played an important role in improving the efficiency of financial…