New rules coming for China's P2P lending companies   

银监会：下半年或出台P2P监管规则

银监会创新部副主任杨晓军上周六在中国互联网金融发展圆桌会议上透露，今年下半年或明年年初将有P2P监管细则规划出台。杨晓军在P2P借贷“四条红线”基础上，进一步详解了细化的行业门槛内容以及监管意见。[查看全文]

(ECNS) -- China's bank regulator will soon issue a new regulation to manage the country's increasing number of peer-to-peer (P2P) financial companies, the Beijing Times said.

Yang Xiaojun, deputy director of the supervisory cooperation department for banking innovation under the China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC), said the detailed regulation will come out in the second half of this year or the first half of next year.

Encouraging innovation is the overall supervisory rule, Yang said Saturday at an internet finance roundtable conference in Beijing.

As service and information providers for lenders and borrowers, P2P companies should mostly be prevented from developing into capital pools or into social organizations along with guarantee companies, Yang said.

P2P companies will be asked to meet an entry threshold, he said, adding that they should also disclose information to lenders and remind them of potential risks.

China has 1,184 P2P companies that serve as online platforms between individuals or company lenders and borrowers, according to data from Wangdaizhijia.com, a Chinese P2P lending portal. The transactions of these companies reached over 81.8 billion yuan ($13.2 billion) in the first six months of this year.

The P2P boom has prompted calls for tougher regulatory supervision, and 55 P2P lenders had gone bankrupt or faced capital problems by mid-June this year, according to data from Wangdaizhijia.com.