China's central bank on Monday ordered the country's financial technology firm Ant Group, an affiliate of IT giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., to become a financial holding company to overhaul its business operations.

The move comes days after China's market regulator fined Alibaba a record 18.2 billion yuan ($2.78 billion) for anti-monopoly violations, as President Xi Jinping has pledged to curb monopolistic behavior and disorderly capital expansion of major IT firms.

Last year, the People's Bank of China issued a business improvement order against Ant, which runs one of the nation's most popular mobile payment apps called Alipay.

In November, Ant was forced by China's authorities to postpone its stock market debut in Shanghai and Hong Kong. Jack Ma, Alibaba's founder, had criticized the country's financial system.

The Communist government has promised in its economic development goal through 2035 to build a "digital China" and tighten regulations against monopolistic and unfair competition practices.

==Kyodo

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