(Yicai Global) April 2 -- Lufax, a fintech giant under China's Ping An Insurance Group, has appointed Ji Guangheng, former chairman of Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank, as co-chairman to oversee its management, strategic transformation and development.

The 52-year-old Ji joined Lufax today, the 21st Century Business Herald reported, citing the Shanghai-based company.

Ji, Chairman Li Renjie and Chief Executive Greg Gibb will run the company together, with Gibb focusing on developing fintech, its digital wealth management platform and the international market, while Li focuses on taking charge of the board of directors and overall coordinated management.

Ping An Insurance set up Shanghai Lujiazui International Financial Asset Exchange, Lufax's official name, in 2011. It has developed from a person-to-person lending platform into a fintech unicorn worth nearly USD40 billion. Outstanding loans under management totaled CNY462.2 billion (USD65 billion) at the end of last year, up 23.3 percent from the start of 2019. The number of its registered users rose 9.1 percent to 44 million, according to the latest data.

Amid ever-changing financial regulation in China, Lufax has undergone a number of business adjustments and strategic transformations in recent years. Last July, there were rumors that Lufax would exit the P2P business in accordance with regulatory requirements and apply for a consumer finance license. Lufax did not explicitly respond to such reports at the time, saying only that it was actively cooperating with regulators to reduce the stock size of its P2P business.

Ji became SRCB chairman at the end of 2015 and joined Shenzhen-based property-to-financial services giant Baoneng Group last year as vice chairman and co-president. Previously, Ji worked for Industrial and Commercial Bank of China for 15 years and also served as a senior executive of Shanghai Pudong Development Bank for a long time.

Editor: Peter Thomas