China Lending Crackdown Deals Blow to World's Biggest Car Market
- P2P platforms facilitated $36 billion of auto loans in 2017
- Many will likely wind down as China steps up industry purge
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China’s escalating crackdown on peer-to-peer lending could hardly have come at a worse time for the country’s slumping car market.
P2P platforms, many of which are likely to wind down under a Chinese plan to shrink the industry, facilitated 248 billion yuan ($36 billion) of auto loans in 2017, or more than a fifth of the total, according to data compiled by 01Caijing and Askci Corp. P2P auto lending dropped 20 percent in the first half of this year, the figures show, and may shrink even further as policy makers push small- and medium-sized operators to close.