The chairman of HSBC has said that regulators in China and elsewhere are starting to consider more seriously whether technology companies that provide financial services should, like banks, be regulated more heavily.
The comment from the chairman of one of the world’s biggest lenders underlines the risk for large technology groups such as Alibaba in China and Apple in the US that they could face stricter regulation as they move further into financial services.
Douglas Flint said in a speech at Cass Business School in London on Thursday: “Regulators all around the world are reflecting on the extent that internet companies are providing banking services and whether they should be regulated as such, or whether they are just providing access to banking services.”