Alibaba forms partnership with Minsheng Bank

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, the country's largest e-commerce group, said on Monday it has formed a strategic partnership with China Minsheng Bank Corp Ltd to collaborate on banking services.

The services will include wealth management, credit cards, direct banking and information technology, according to a statement from the company sent to China Daily.

Alibaba has long embarked on providing loans to small and medium-sized companies in China, through facilitating small sellers on taobao.com.

Teaming up with banks, Alibaba is taking on its State-backed rival China UnionPay. The country's largest card processor has urged banks to complete all online transactions and clearing through its own channels, indicating that third-party payment enterprises cannot skirt UnionPay to complete bank transactions.

Alipay, Alibaba's indigenous third-party payment platform, consequently discontinued its offline-payment service in late August.