Chinese internet search group Baidu will partner with Citic Bank to launch an online bank, local media reported, even as banks launched by Alibaba and Tencent have failed to meet expectations.

据中国媒体报道，中国互联网搜索公司百度(Baidu)将与中信银行(Citic Bank)合作成立一家在线银行，尽管由阿里巴巴(Alibaba)和腾讯(Tencent)分别成立的银行业绩并不如意。

Internet companies have shaken up China’s financial sector¹ in recent years, with mobile payments, wealth management and peer-to-peer lending the biggest growth areas.

互联网公司近年撼动了中国金融业，移动支付、理财以及个人对个人贷款（peer-to-peer lending，简称P2P贷款）成为最大的增长领域。

China Citic Bank, part of state-owned conglomerate² Citic Group, suspended its shares in Shanghai and Hong Kong on Monday pending³ announcement of a “proposed external investment”. Baidu declined to comment on the report by 21st Century Business Herald⁴, but said it would make an announcement today.

周一，国有企业集团中信集团(Citic Group)旗下的中信银行宣布其在上海和香港上市的股票停牌，等待宣布一项“拟议的外部投资”。百度拒绝对《21世纪经济报道》(21st Century Business Herald)的报道进行置评，但表示将于今日发布一份声明。

In January, Tencent launched the country’s first online-only bank, WeBank, named after the gaming and social media company’s popular WeChat instant messaging app. The financial affiliate⁵ of Alibaba Group, Ant Financial, followed with its own — MyBank in June.

今年1月，腾讯发起成立了中国首家在线银行微众银行(WeBank)——以这家游戏与社交媒体公司流行的即时通讯应用微信(WeChat)命名。阿里巴巴集团旗下金融子公司蚂蚁金融(Ant Financial)随后在6月成立了自己的网商银行(MYbank)。

China’s banking⁶ regulator granted bank licences to Tencent and Ant Financial as part of a pilot programme to encourage privately⁷ owned banks. In a sign of the government’s hope that private banks can help channel finance to small, private companies, Chinese premier⁸ Li Keqiang attended WeBank’s launch ceremony. China’s nine largest banks are all state-owned and favour lending to large, state-owned groups.

作为鼓励民营银行试点计划的一部分，中国银行业监管机构授予了腾讯和蚂蚁金服银行牌照。中国总理李克强还出席微众银行的启动仪式，以表示政府希望民营银行能够帮助小型私营企业获得融资。中国最大的九家银行都属国有，它们更偏向于贷款给大型国有集团。