Ant Group's insurance general manager and the original designer of a platform that now boasts over 100 million users has resigned amid tightening regulatory scrutiny against the fintech giant.
Yin Ming has resigned from Ant Group, according to an «SCMP» report, and he will be replaced by vice president Shao Wenlan, formerly the fintech firm’s chief of private credit scoring and loyalty program Zhima Credit since June 2019.
«[Yin] has been a great colleague of ours for the past five years. We strived hard and overcame challenges together, and we appreciate his contributions to the company,« the firm said in a statement. «We wish him the best of luck in the future.»
Most of Yin’s career was dedicated to the insurance sector after starting at China Life’s property insurance unit in 2009 before joining Ant Group in September 2015.
Xianghubao
Yin is the designer of Ant's mutual aid insurance program Xianghubao (translated as «mutual protection») which significantly improved mainland access to medical services since its launch in 2018.
The crowdsourced insurance platform boasts 100 million members whose pooled capital allows users to receive up to 300,00 yuan ($46,300) in medical insurance across 100 types of serious illnesses at negligible costs. Each member paid just 29.17 yuan ($4.5) on average for coverage in Xianghubao’s first full year of operations.
Yin’s exit occurs in the midst of increasing fintech scrutiny, particularly against Ant Group. In the past few months, the firm has seen its IPO scrapped, a dedicated regulatory task force established and talks of breakup risk which could result in an estimated two-thirds plunge of parent group Alibaba’s overall valuation.
