Chinese regulators abruptly suspended the fintech giant’s IPO late Tuesday night, just a day after interviewing founder Jack Ma and two other executives. Ant was gearing up for a mammoth dual listing on the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges this Thursday, leaving in limbo thousands of retail and institutional investors who were betting on a massive stock surge. (Financial Times, Bloomberg)

Talking point: The Shanghai Stock Exchange expressed concern about Ma’s interview with regulators, saying in a statement there had been “major issues” with the listing that “may cause” Ant Group to “fail to meet the issuance and listing conditions.” The exchange subsequently pulled the listing. In a statement to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, Ant Group confirmed that it “may not meet listing qualifications” as a result of matters relating to Ma’s interview. He has been a vocal critic of the dominance of state-owned banks, recently calling them “pawn shops.” Chinese regulators have long been wary about the rise of Ant’s Alipay app, fearing it would eventually become too big to control. One of the official Chinese Communist Party newspapers, Economic Daily, praised the decision to suspend the IPO. Ma’s own stock holdings in Alibaba Group eroded by US$3 billion, within hours after news of the suspension broke.