In China, P2P insiders say regulatory shortcomings have choked industry
reuters:凭本事借的钱

September 6, 2019 / 1:29 AM / Updated 3 hours ago
BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Overburdened Chinese regulators have left the peer-to-peer lending industry to poorly staffed local governments, according to ex-regulators, threatening the survival of an important credit mechanism once seen as crucial for the country's economy.

BOOM AND BUST
China's P2P firms have dabbled in all manner of misdemeanors, including misallocating funds and mass criminal enterprises such as Ezubao - a 50 billion yuan fraud - where convictions ranged from illegal possession of weapons to undocumented border crossings.
In the initial years of the P2P surge, regulators in China took a hands-off approach. But once fraud erupted and victims took to the streets, what was then called the China Banking Regulatory Commission drafted regulation that passed oversight to local authorities.
“It was a mission impossible ... as the number of P2P platforms was so large at the time,” said a person at a northern branch of the CBIRC, who was not authorized to speak to the media.
Finance bureaus operating under local government authorities then passed the work down to district bureaus, who relied on P2P firms for data and disclosure.
P2P firms in each district had to submit accounts monthly, quarterly and yearly to the bureaus. They also had to submit a database with details such as cash flow to the city Commission of Economy and Information, which reports to the central bank.
“The problem was, there was no time to do the analysis,” said a person who worked for more than a decade at the banking regulator and then at a P2P firm, who declined to be identified as she is not authorized to speak to the media.
“The authorities had no toolbox to supervise the firms; there was no offsite surveillance,” the person said. “This is why it all went wrong.”
Local agencies had tiny staffs compared with the CBIRC and the PBOC, according to one ex-regulator and a person at an internet regulatory body that oversees P2P. Both declined to be identified as they are not authorized to speak to the media.
The Shanghai CBIRC, for example, has about 300 people, sources familiar with the regulatory power said, while the local finance bureau had 16 to 39 at end of 2016, according to a 2017 study by Wang Chong, a central banker at PBOC's Jinan branch.
The ex-regulator said some districts were completely unstaffed.
Hebei province - population 75 million - surrounds Beijing, but officials in the finance bureau there failed to respond to 200 reports and requests from Fincera, once the province's largest P2P firm by loans, Fincera said in a statement to Reuters.The company has since left P2P lending.
The Hebei finance bureau did not respond to requests for comment.
In June and July, the province's authorities asked all P2P firms to close, according to two notices seen by Reuters.
But in other provinces, and cities such as Beijing, P2P companies are still operating.

LACK OF TOOLS
In other countries, P2P has thrived as an alternative to bank lending.
The US, UK and Japan all have active P2P companies. According to an analysis by the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI), the UK regulatory framework has been the most successful at encouraging the industry.
In the US, P2P platforms loaned $1.5 billion in 2016, while UK firms loaned $1.8 billion. Japanese P2P lenders had $1.2 billion of outstanding loans in 2017, according to the report.
In the UK, P2P firms are assessed by the country's top financial regulator, which focuses on engagement with the platforms, according to the 2019 ADBI paper. It provides feedback on their plans and runs a sandbox for testing new models, said the paper.
Ultimately, Chinese regulators are more concerned with social stability than the survival of P2Ps, industry insiders said.

“Top regulators don't necessarily see the bigger picture,” said the banking regulator based in a northern city.
Mass protests, such as one in Beijing last year, are “likely to lead to the cutting-off of the whole industry,” the person said.
The CBIRC and PBOC didn't respond to requests for comment.
Reporting by Cheng Leng in BEIJING and Engen Tham in SHANGHAI; Editing by Gerry Doyle

出逃吧

来看看

有链接么

大概的意思是监管权已下放到地区，但地区没有人力和经验来监管，还要背负责任，不堪重负，一刀切在某种情况出现后很可能发生。

楼主辛苦，感谢分享

反过来说就是国庆后反而有空间了