Qiantang Credit Rating Co Ltd will become the third personal credit scoring firm in China if officially approved by regulators.

It will be registered in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province with a capital of 1 billion yuan ($156.50 million), the central bank said. The city is where Alibaba and Ant are based.

Ant and the state-backed Zhejiang Tourism Investment Group Co Ltd will each own 35% of the venture, according to a statement by the People's Bank of China (PBOC).

Other state-backed partners, including Hangzhou Finance and Investment Group and Zhejiang Electronic Port, will hold 6.5% each.

Transfar Group, a non-state-backed shareholder, will hold 7%, while the remaining 10% will be held by Hangzhou Xishu.

Hangzhou Xishu is an entity that operates employee stock ownership plans, a source with knowledge of the matter said.

The set-up of the venture https://www.reuters.com/technology/exclusive-chinese-state-firms-take-big-stake-ants-credit-scoring-jv-sources-2021-09-01 is part of Ant's sweeping business revamp ordered by regulators who put a sudden stop to its blockbuster initial public offering (IPO) last November.

The government has pushed for state-backed firms to exert more influence over fast-growing but lightly regulated new-economy businesses, Reuters has reported.

It also serves as the central bank's year-long attempt to link loan data among different online lending platforms, and tighten controls in credit information sharing to prevent over-borrowing and fraud.

Before Qiantang, the central bank had approved Baihang Credit in 2018, China's first licensed personal credit agency with nine parties co-invested, including credit rating units of Ant and Tencent Holdings.

It granted a second such approval https://www.reuters.com/article/china-pboc-credit-idUSL4N2IK2KR to set up Pudao Credit Rating in December 2020, a venture between the investment arm of the Beijing government and subsidiaries of e-commerce giant JD.com and smartphone maker Xiaomi Corp.

($1 = 6.3901 Chinese yuan)

(Reporting by Cheng Leng, Zhang Yan, Ryan Woo and Julie Zhu; Editing by Edmund Blair and Louise Heavens)