Lufax eyes discount brokerage services

China's Lufax has become the biggest online peer-to-peer lender in the world by certain measures. Now it is aiming to become much more.

Gregory Gibb, the former McKinsey & Co consultant who runs Lufax, wants to create the Charles Schwab Corp of China, offering a broad selection of financial services including discount brokerage to the country's fast-growing middle class. He sees it as a natural extension of the Lufax lending platform, where individuals and small-businesses who want to borrow money are matched with investors seeking higher returns than what they can get from a bank.

Lufax, short for Shanghai Lujiazui International Financial Asset Exchange Co, has emerged as the leader in China's booming peer lending market among thousands of competitors, shaking up the traditionally State-controlled sector. The goal now is to bring innovation and lower prices to a broader swath of finance, a challenge for giants such as Citic Group Corp and China Construction Bank Corp.