In late 2020, Ant Financial was scheduled to go public in an IPO (listing the company for the public trade of shares on stock exchanges) which valued the company at $313 billion. Jack Ma, the founder of Ant Financial, criticized the regulatory system of China and denounced Chinese banks as 'pawnshops' and implying irresponsibility; shortly afterwards, Xi Jinping decided to prevent Ant Financial from going public due to a failure to comply with these regulations.