The ‘largest IPO in human history’ – Ant Group’s $37bn public offering in Shanghai and Hong Kong – has been suspended by Chinese regulators.

‘Largest IPO in human history’ called off

Ant founder Jack Ma (pictured) recently gave a speech criticising the banking industry’s regulators and he was called in by them on Monday to provide explanations.

In the past, Ma has said the Ant business model is the future of finance taking over from the current banking business model. The banking industry has opposed Ant from day one.

He is famous for saying: “If the banks don’t change, we’ll change the banks.”

Now it looks as if the China establishment financial industry is changing Ant’s plan to raise $34 billion and, along the way, Ant’s business model.

A statement from the Shanghai stock exchange said that there were changes in “the financial technology regulatory environment”.

“This material event may cause your company to fail to meet the issuance and listing conditions or information disclosure requirements,” said the statement, “our exchange has decided to postpone the listing of your company.”

Ant said that its IPO had been suspended because the company “may not meet listing qualifications or disclosure requirements due to material matters relating to the regulatory interview of our ultimate controller, our executive chairman and our chief executive officer by the relevant regulators and the recent changes in the fintech regulatory environment.”

Ant also said that it would follow regulators’ guidelines including stable innovation, an embrace of supervision and service to the real economy.

It is thought that the regulator may scupper Ant’s business model by requiring borrowers to put up 30% of any loan they receive.

This would kill Ant’s business model which is built on making small loans and providing other financial services to SMEs and individuals.

It would also kill off a potentially disruptive challenge to the state-controlled banking sector.