Alibaba Founder Jack Ma Blasts Global Financial Regulations, Says It Excessively Focuses On Risk Control And Not On Development

Alibaba Group founder Jack Ma has blasted global financial regulations for stifling innovation and urged China to chart a system that accommodates its unique development requirements, Financial Times reported.

Addressing the Bund Summit in Shanghai on Saturday (Oct 24), Ma likened the Basel Accords to a club for the elderly. He criticized the international banking supervision framework as outdated and said that “we can’t use yesterday’s methods to regulate the future”.

Ma felt that after the Asian financial crisis, the risk control highlighted in the Basel Accords has been” the priority for regulators.

Now the world “only focuses on risk control, not on development, and rarely do they consider opportunities for young people and developing countries.” , Ma said.

Ma argued that China’s biggest problem was the lack of a functioning financial system. He said China’s financial system is still dominated by big state banks, and it is in need of other technology-driven channels to provide funds efficiently in a vast economic system.

China is still a “youth” and needs more innovation to build an ecosystem for the healthy development of the local industry, Ma said.

Digital currencies will play an important role in building the type of a financial system that will be needed in the next 30 years, Ma said.

“Digital currency could create value and we should think about how to establish a new type of financial system through digital currency,” said Ma.

Ma’s Ant Group Co. is set for initial public offerings in both Shanghai and Hong Kong. The dual listing is expected to create history by surpassing Saudi Aramco’s record $29 billion share sale in 2019.