Ant Group, the financial technology arm of Chinese billionaire Jack Ma, has defied calls from China’s central bank and shared only a portion of its consumer data, the Financial Times reported.

Ant Group operates Alipay, the biggest payment platform in China, and runs a consumer lending business on the platform. This allows the company to collect data related to consumer spending habits and credit of some 500 million users. Chinese financial regulators have reportedly requested access to such data, saying that that information is for the “public good.”

Ant has been conservative about sharing the data, blaming privacy concerns, with Chinese officials complaining about the frequency of sharing and the lack of details, according to the report.

The People’s Bank of China is reportedly “unhappy” with its progress, and Ant has blamed privacy laws as users must give their approval before the company can send their information to the central bank. Only a fraction have agreed to do so.

Ant pledged to work with regulators after its US$37 billion initial public offering — set to be the largest in history — was called off by mainland Chinese regulators at the eleventh hour last November.

The company is already providing information to a state-backed database about its users who have taken out loans, including their personal identities, monthly borrowing amounts and debt repayment statuses.

Both the Ant Group and the People’s Bank of China have refused to comment on the Financial Times report.

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