China's buy now pay later market is set to grow — but the industry is still at a nascent stage, and challenges lie ahead, experts told CNBC.
The CBRC issued a warning that the surge in consumer loans could pose a risk to the country's lending system; they noted that lenders should not try to push up the consumer leverage ratio and they should take lessons from the US subprime mortgage crisis; recent reviews of loan books show misuse of loans for housing down payments and banks need to stay closer to lending regulations. Source.
Mobile payments in China have taken off in recent years as Ant Financial and Tencent dominate the market; in recent...
The People's Bank of China says in a report that it is considering expanding its risk-assessment system beyond banks to include major online financial businesses; the Wall Street Journal comments that China's central bank is increasing its monitoring of the loosely regulated fintech sector. Source
China's central bank provided its insight on fintech development initiatives for the country in a recent press conference; the press conference included four of the central bank's government officials including Zhou Xiaochuan, governor of the People's Bank of China; the central bank reported that it encourages and supports fintech development in the country; it spoke about some of its initiatives including a digital currency and other new blockchain solutions; it also noted its work to strengthen regulation specifically in the areas of unlicensed businesses and third-party payment platforms. Source
China’s central bank has launched its CBDC wallet app on the Android and Apple app stores as it gears up...
ICOINFO, one of China's largest ICO exchange platforms, announces the suspension of new project launches, awaiting relevant regulatory rules; users will not be able to add value to their accounts during the suspension. Source
A new wave of IPOs by mainland Chinese fintech companies is taking shape; P2P companies in particular are hungry for fresh capital to reinforce their business growth; two mainland-based P2P operators – Yirendai and China Rapid Finance – are currently traded in New York; Sorghum Investment last month announced a reverse merger with Nasdaq-listed China Commercial Credit which would make it the third. Source
Greenland Financial is expected to report a profit after one year of business; the internet finance company is a newly developed business unit of Greenland Group which is known for its focus on real estate; Greenland Financial offers three main services 1) a wealth management platform with various investment products 2) professional asset allocation and wealth management services and 3) a cloud platform for internet technology and data analysis services; contributing to the success of China's real estate conglomerate, Greenland Financial's president, Yang Xiaodong, had the following comments about the company and its future growth: "The company's revenue and profit will double each year over the next two to three years. I am confident about that. And I hope after three years, the company will seek listing on the capital market." Source
Several reports have recently pointed to China as the world's leading country for fintech innovation and adoption; in the first nine months of 2016 over 50% of global fintech investments went to China and the country is reporting the world's four largest fintech unicorns; overall, China has a number of unique factors fueling its fintech growth; some of the main factors include regulatory initiatives and tech savvy underserved consumers and SMEs driving demand; the country is also reporting corporate banks with higher comparative ROEs and greater willingness to invest in digital; additionally, the country's top e-commerce businesses, Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent, are also significantly influencing fintech growth with growing businesses and investments in payments as well as new technologies such as blockchain and artificial intelligence; P2P lending is one of fintech's dominant categories with China leading Asia-Pacific market development and reporting 99% of P2P transaction volume, a total value of $101.7 billion in 2015 and over 4,000 P2P lenders. Source