As a part of restructuring China’s Ant Group, the chief official of the company, Simon Hu has walked down. He has informed that the movement is “for personal reasons”.
He will be replaced by executive chairman Eric Jing, the company told.
The forerunner of Ant is the billionaire Jack Ma who first made his name through the trading platform Alibaba.
Recently, the company has come under extreme regulatory pressure and was compelled to drop its planned $37bn public share sale.
It runs Alipay, the world’s largest mobile and online payments platform as well as Yu’e Bao, previously the world’s largest money-market fund.
Ant Group is China’s largest payments provider, with more than 730 million monthly users on its digital payments service Alipay.
But it also acts as a business place for loans. It takes a fee to match borrowers with banks, who then take on the risk.
The company also offers savings accounts and insurance, all through its mobile phone app.
Jack Ma has pulled controversy in China, criticizing the state-dominated banking sector, and the company is in the cross-hairs of regulators, anxious to make it into line with more traditional banks and lenders and to dominate the market.
Last year the Chinese officials hindered Ant Group’s intended initial public offering (IPO) in Shanghai and Hong Kong.
Ant Group executives were told to restructure the company’s operations to turn it into a holding company and to follow with sterner financial management.
Ant Group, already known by the name of its payments app Alipay, is affiliated with Alibaba, and like the Chinese trading platform has extended its services outside China, including in Europe and the United States.
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