China’s ongoing crackdown on P2P lenders has spread from Nanjing and Shanghai to the Zhejiang province capital of Hangzhou, with a slew of investigations launched within the space of a week.
A new report from 21st Century Business Herald says that as many as 10 P2P lending platforms situated in Hangzhou have been placed under investigation by local authorities as of 9 July, including Tourong Jia (投融家), Niuban Jin (牛板金), Yunduan Finance (云端金融), Renren Aijia (人人爱家), Xiaojiu Jinfu (小九金服), Debao Licai (得宝理财), Hangzhou Youyang Investment (杭州优杨投资), Hangzhou Zheyou Minjian Ziben (杭州浙优民间资本), Hangzhou Qitian Youdai (杭州祺天优贷) and Hangzhou Guanghui Ruanjian (杭州广惠软件).
Niuban Jin and Renren Aijia are two of the region’s leading online lenders, with each platform managing several dozen billion yuan in loans.
The latest online lender to be felled was Tourong Jia, whose website and offices were both shut down as of 9 July, and whose general manager has reportedly absconded.
Official data indicates that Tourong Jia had made a total of 1036,876 individual loans as of 8 July 2018 to 19,111 borrowers, for a loan balance of 1.72 billion yuan.
The crackdown has already had an impact upon the Zhejiang province online lending sector, with one senior executive at a P2P platform telling 21st Century that liquidity had come under heavy pressure.
These liquidity issues caused a network disturbance for Jiangxi Bank on on 5 July, which provides depository services to nearly 100 P2P platforms.
The crackdown arrives just after the Chinese central bank issued a circular via its official website stating that regulators would spend the next one to two years on further rectification of risk in relation to online finance.
