China's peer-to-peer lending platforms posted a drop in transactions for the first time in 11 months in January as investors were affected by pending stricter rules on the sector.
The monthly transactions fell 2.5 percent to 130.4 billion yuan ($19.8 billion) from December, Online Lending House, a web portal that tracks the sector, said in the report. The drop was a reversal from an average monthly growth of 12.2 percent in transactions in 2015.
"The draft rules aimed at tightening the P2P industry affected investors' mood," said Ma Jun, chief research officer at Shanghai Ying Can Investment Management Consulting Co.
The China Banking Regulatory Commission published draft rules in December to tighten the sector and crack down on fake P2P platforms such as Ezubao whose executives admitted yesterday the platform was a Ponzi Scheme which illegally raised 50 billion yuan from investors.
P2P lenders transacted 982.3 billion yuan last year, the report said.
There are 2,566 P2P platforms after their numbers fell for a second month as local regulators in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen stopped online finance related firms from registering.
