The People's Bank of China has given the greenlight to a new credit scoring company owned by a consortium including Ant Group and a collection of state-backed partners.
Qiantang Credit Rating will become China's third personal credit scoring firm and have a capital of one billion yuan, says the central bank.
Ant will own 35% of the venture, with state-backed Zhejiang Tourism Investment Group holding another 35%. The remaining 30% will be held by various state-backed and private outfits.
The new venture is part of a restructuring programme for Ant, after the fintech giant fell foul of Chinese regulators, forcing it to abandon its planned $37 billion IPO late last year.
In March, the Financial Times reported that Ant was resisting pressure to hand over customer data to the central bank, which wanted the information to help state-owned banks assess credit worthiness.