China Peer-to-Peer Loan Sites Fail as Fraud Climbs, Xinhua Says
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Some Chinese peer-to-peer lending websites collapsed last year and others may need restructuring in 2014 to curb fraud in an industry that has grown rapidly with little regulatory oversight, Xinhua News Agency said.
About 800 such online operations emerged in China just last year with outstanding loans of 26.8 billion yuan ($4.4 billion), Xinhua reported, citing industry data from Wangdaizhijia.com, China’s biggest peer-to-peer lending site. Meanwhile, 74 websites were either shut down or their users were unable to withdraw cash, according to the report.