Zhima Credit to do away with deposits

Zhima Credit, the online credit scoring service of e-commerce giant Alibaba, said on Wednesday that it would invest 1 billion yuan ($151 million) to eliminate security deposits in the sharing economy.

The company said it would upgrade its deposit-free plan for customers with high credit scores. It will also come out measures like bringing in insurance companies to provide support to merchants and service providers who do not charge any deposit from consumers.

Zhima Credit will extend the scheme gradually to other sectors such as house rentals and hotels.