Alibaba launches financial service arm

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group launched a new affiliate on Thursday to oversee its existing financial services entities and tap more deeply into the lucrative financial market.

Ant Financial Services Group will target small and micro-sized companies and individual consumers, as Alibaba continues its expansion drive following its stunning New York IPO on Sept. 19.

The six entities under Ant include Alipay, China's Paypal-like third-party payment platform; Alipay Wallet, the mobile application of Alipay; Yu'e Bao, a money market fund with 570 billion yuan (93 billion U.S. dollars) under management by June 30; Zhaocaibao, a third-party financial services platform; micro-loan provider Ant Micro and MYBank, a private bank.

Alipay clears 80 million transactions per day, including 45 million transactions through Alipay Wallet.

MYBank received approval from the China Banking Regulatory Commission in late September, amid the country's attempt to open its tightly-controlled banking sector to private investors. Ant Financial Services Group owns a 30-percent share of the bank.

Company employees, including Alibaba founder Jack Ma, will hold a 40-percent stake of Ant Financial Services Group. The company will be able to issue 33 percent of its shares to Alibaba in the future and the remaining 27 percent will be used to attract investors.

Ma's share in the new affiliate will not surpass his share in Alibaba Group, which stands at 7.65 percent.

Alibaba's IPO raised 25 billion U.S. dollars and made it the world's second-largest Internet company in market value, according to the group.