The Ant Financial initial public offering (IPO) has come to a halt after the Chinese government suspended it.

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Here’s what potential investors need to know about the Ant IPO being suspended.

• The reason for the suspension of the Ant Financial IPO has to do with increasing scrutiny from China.
• China called Jack Ma, the co-founder of the company, into a supervisory meeting on Monday.
• It’s unclear how long the suspension may late but it will affect the stock on both the Shanghai and Hong Kong stock exchanges.
• That’s ahead of its expected first day of trading, which was going to be Thursday.
• The Ant Financial IPO being suspended also brings a halt to a record for the stock market.
• It would have valued the company at $315 billion.
• This would have made it the largest IPO in history.
• It’s worth noting that Ant Financial has been making major changes to how Chinese people use money.
• That, in turn, has resulted in it acting as a rival to state-ran banks.
• Even so, Ant Financial has been working on those issues by offering loans with the money coming from lenders outside of it.

Yu Baicheng, head of Beijing think tank the Zero One Research Institute, told The New York Times the following.

“The regulators have long been looking at the risks in this area and how it should be regulated, but it’s all suddenly coming out at this specific time. It’s definitely a statement of the regulators’ attitude.”

On the date of publication, William White did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article.