Ant Group CEO Han Xinyi announced on Sept. 21 that the former Alipay Business Group, Digital Payment Business Group and Zhima Credit Business Unit will be merged into a new Alipay Business Group led by Group Chief People Officer Wu Minzhi. The restructuring reduces Ant's first-tier business groups from five to four: Alipay, Credit, Wealth & Insurance, and Health. It also brings the Strategy Department and Business Development functional lines into the new group, giving the unit a structure closer to a standalone company with a single leader accountable for results. Ant said the move is intended to consolidate technology, products, ecosystem capabilities and merchant services as it pursues agentic commerce. The merger ends a 21-month rotating-president experiment launched after Alipay was split in December 2024. It comes as Alipay faces pressure from WeChat Pay, Douyin Pay, weaker profitability and the high cost of subsidizing Tap to Pay, while Ant continues investing in AI products and overseas businesses. Analysts say combining user, payment and trust capabilities could support an end-to-end agentic commerce chain, although adoption, merchant monetization and cross-platform interoperability remain unresolved.