Ant woos 3rd-party financial shops

Ant Financial Services Group announced on Wednesday that it will allow third-party financial institutions to set up virtual shops through an indigenous app, another push to vie for supremacy in the country's booming online financial sector.

Banks and mutual funds can now publish content and sell their own financial products in a newly unveiled function, the "Fortune Account", via Ant Fortune, the wealth management app of Ant, according to Fan Zhiming, president of the payment business unit at Ant Financial.

"The overarching goal of the platform is to allow financial services to directly reach end-users, and to form an online community discussing wealth management options," he said.