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Banking & finance
BusinessBanking & Finance

Ant Group’s architect of mutual aid platform quits as insurance chief amid industry shake-out in world’s largest fintech market

  • Yin Ming is the first member of Ant senior management to quit after the suspension of its listing in November
  • Ant Group’s insurance business, including the Xianghubao mutual aid platform, reported 52 billion yuan in premium income in the 12 months ended June 2020

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A screen grab of the Xianghubao service. Photo: Handout
Enoch Yiu

Ant Group, the world’s largest fintech company, has lost the head of its insurance unit after five years in the job, amid a regulatory shake-out over offerings of financial services by technology companies.

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Yin Ming, the acclaimed designer of the mutual aid insurance programme Xianghubao – which means “protect each other” in Chinese – has resigned as the general manager of Ant Group’s insurance business, according to a company spokesperson. His replacement is Ant Group’s vice-president Shao Wenlan, who has headed the fintech company’s private credit scoring and loyalty programme Zhima Credit since June 2019.

“Yin Ming 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. We wish him the best of luck in the future,” according to the statement by the affiliate company of the South China Morning Post’s owner, Alibaba Group Holding.

Yin has spent most of his career in insurance, starting at China Life’s property insurance arm in 2009 before being tapped to lead Ant Group’s expansion in the fintech industry in September 2015. Yin could not be reached for comment.

Xianghubao is an online insurance platform introduced by Alipay in October 2018. Photo: Handout
Xianghubao is an online insurance platform introduced by Alipay in October 2018. Photo: Handout
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Ant Group launched Xianghubao in 2018, a form of crowdsourced insurance product that capitalises on the large user base of China’s dominant online payments service to lower the cost of insurance. With more than 100 million members, the platform allows customers to pay close to nothing to receive up to 300,000 yuan (US$46,300) each in medical insurance coverage for 100 types of serious illnesses, each medical bill shared by the entire membership.
The platform slashed the price of access to health insurance. In its first full year of operation, each Xianghubao member paid 29.17 yuan on average for coverage, less than the price of a Starbucks coffee in Shanghai. Ant Group set a maximum cost of 188 yuan per member last year, and expanded the service to provide premium-free coverage of up to 100,000 yuan for Covid-19 treatment.
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