WorldFirst shut its U.S. money transfer operations in a preemptive move designed to avoid U.S. regulatory scrutiny as it waits to finalize a $700 million takeover deal by Ant Financial.

Ant Financial, a unit of Chinese e-commerce retailer Alibaba and parent company of Alipay, had previously been rejected by U.S. regulators after its $1.2 billion deal to buy MoneyGram was blocked on national security concerns.

WorldFirst, in a notice on its U.S. website, said it will end all U.S. transactions starting Feb. 20 and will be rebranded under the Omega name and operate as an independent company.