Japan’s largest online brokerage SBI has ended a joint venture with Ping An Insurance over concerns about data protection.

SBI terminated its joint venture with Ping An, according to a report by Japanese news agency «Kyodo», due to unexpectedly high fintech development costs.

The joint venture – SBI OneConnect Japan – was first established in 2019 to provide cloud-based and artificial intelligence services to support transformation for Japan’s regional banks as well as foster the localization of fintech solutions by Ping An subsidiary OneConnect.

The involvement of a Chinese company will cause worries about data protection by Japanese financial institutions, the report added.

China Fears

This is not the first time that SBI has publicly expressed concerns about China and its potential impact on the financial services industry.

In March this year, it announced its planned exit from Hong Kong due to worries about the business impact of Beijing’s controversial national security law.

«[W]ithout freedom, there is no financial business,» said SBI chief executive Kitao Yoshitaka. «If I want to do business in China, I would rather have an office in Beijing or Shanghai or somewhere.»