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| - The chief executive of Chinese fintech giant Ant Group has stepped down for "personal reasons", a spokesperson from the Alibaba-affiliated online payment provider said Friday, amid growing regulatory scrutiny. Simon Hu has been replaced as CEO by Ant Group executive Eric Jing, according to the company's updated website, just months after Chinese authorities pulled the plug on the company's colossal Hong Kong IPO. "The Ant Group Board of Directors has accepted Mr. Simon Hu's resignation request, due to personal reasons," Ant's spokesperson said in a statement. Tech tycoon Jack Ma's Alibaba, China's largest online shopping portal, has been in the crosshairs of authorities in recent months over concerns of its reach into the daily finances of ordinary Chinese people. Its online payment subsidiary Ant Group made its name via its main product Alipay, the online payments platform and super-app that is now deeply embedded in China's economy. But the company also expanded into offering loans, credit, investments and insurance to hundreds of millions of consumers and small businesses, spurring fear and jealousy in a wider banking system geared more for supporting state policy and large corporations. Ant had been set for a record-busting $34 billion IPO in Hong Kong and Shanghai late last year when the double listing was abruptly called off in November by regulators, who told Ant it couldn't go ahead until it complied with new capital requirements. The company's executives were later summoned to a meeting with China's central bank where they were ordered to "strictly rectify" Ant's financial services and return to its roots as a payment services provider. tjx/reb
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