FILE PHOTO - Pedestrians walk past the front of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) with a Snap Inc. logo hung on the front of it shortly before the company's IPO in New York, U.S., March 2, 2017. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

(Reuters) - Snap Inc on Monday named its Chief Accounting Officer Lara Sweet as interim chief financial officer and said it has begun a search for a permanent CFO.

Sweet will take over from CFO Tim Stone who will leave the company on Feb. 5. Stone decided to quit earlier this month, less than a year after taking the job, adding to a string of departures from the owner of photo messaging app, Snapchat.

Snap has faced several troubles recently as it continues to grapple with a widely-panned redesign of the app, which was attributed to a decline in its users over the past two quarters.

Stone became the second finance chief to leave the company in a year since the much-criticized redesign of the app.

Several Wall Street analysts saw Stone’s departure as a loss of an experienced industry hand that would make it tougher for the company to hire and retain top executives. Snap shares had fallen 9 percent on the day Stone decided to quit.

No new compensatory arrangements have been entered into with Sweet in connection with her new role, Snap said in a filing, adding that she will report to Chief Executive Officer Evan Spiegel.