Alibaba Denies Attempt to Banking Business

Alibaba Group (HKG: 1688), China's largest ecommerce site, has denied that it was planning to establish a bank, and a senior official with the nation's banking regulator saying the company had not done anything concrete to tap into the financial sector. There were rumors that Alibaba had won regulatory approval to set up a bank where Softbank and CDH Investments will take minority stakes. Alibaba founded a credit house that offers loans to small- and midsized businesses in June.