Hangzhou P2P Stores Are Closing, And Relevant Departments Begin To Check

The special rectification of Internet finance was launched, and the first batch of 125 related enterprises were investigated in Hangzhou.

From the intersection of Taipingmen Straight Street and Qiutao Road in Hangzhou, all the way west to the intersection of Kaixuan Road, there were six financial stores opened by local investment companies. The stores were large and small, but the decoration was good and poor. Yesterday, when the reporter passed here again, he found that all these stores had changed. Some have become offline stores of cross-border e-commerce, some have simply lent their stores to banks to do community finance, and others have been empty, now they have become restaurants or fruit shops.

Many citizens lament that Hangzhou's large and small investment and wealth management companies seem to have suddenly disappeared collectively. Industry insiders frankly said that this has something to do with the special rectification of the Internet finance field recently launched nationwide.

On April 14, the State Council organized 14 ministries and commissions to hold a meeting, and decided to launch a one-year special renovation in the field of Internet finance nationwide. The focus of remediation includes third-party payment, offline investment and financing, P2P online lending, equity crowdfunding, Internet insurance, as well as down payment loan, balance loan and other real estate financial products. Yesterday, the reporter learned from the relevant personages of Hangzhou Internet Finance Association that the investigation and rectification work of Hangzhou in the field of Internet finance has been started since last week, and the first batch of Internet enterprises to be investigated has 125. The targeted troubleshooting and rectification work of district financial offices in conjunction with relevant departments has also begun.

Since the beginning of this year, many third-party investment and financial institutions in Hangzhou have closed their doors and closed their businesses as agreed.

Near the junction of Kaixuan Road and Qingchun Road, "Fortune of the Day" opened a luxury store, covering an area of more than 300 square meters. After the trust crisis of its parent company, Kuailu Group, it also closed down quickly, and the property management did not know when they would return.

A wealth management company on the straight street of Taipingmen has placed its wealth management business in a hidden compartment, and the whole store has become Cross border e-commerce Offline store. The salesperson said that in the future, the company will also do financial management, but now the company has just invested in cross-border projects, focusing on this business.

Another company simply lent its store to the bank to do community finance, and only revealed its own brand. When asked why the previous wealth management products were not sold, the salesperson also hesitated and only gave an address, "You can go to our headquarters to learn more about them."

Last December, the CBRC issued《 Online lending Interim Measures for the Management of Business Activities of Information Intermediaries (Draft for Comments), It requires that "except for some necessary business links specified in risk management and relevant regulatory provisions on online lending such as credit information collection, verification, post loan tracking, mortgage and pledge management, online lending information intermediaries shall not conduct business in physical places other than the Internet, fixed telephone, mobile phone and other electronic channels." This provision clearly prohibits P2P offline financing, However, a transition period of 18 months has also been reserved for these platforms.

These online loan companies have to find a way out by closing or integrating offline stores during the transition period. Recently, the chairman of Yilong Loan said in an interview with a media that its platform has 7 offline financial stores across the country, which have all been closed. The relevant person in charge of Jieyue United also said that up to now, stores in some third and fourth tier cities have been closed, and offline financial stores in first and second tier cities will be gradually closed in the future.

Industry insiders told reporters that the recent "closing tide" of third-party financial institutions, as well as the rectification and closure of P2P offline financial stores, have something to do with the recent special rectification of the Internet financial sector nationwide. During the rectification period, all provinces and cities across the country will suspend the registration of enterprises with "finance" related words in their names and business scope.

Relevant departments in Zhejiang have recently started to take action, and have now determined a list of relevant enterprises to be checked and rectified. At the same time, the relevant departments in Hangzhou have begun to check and rectify.

At the beginning of March, Jianggan Branch of Hangzhou Public Security Bureau released an official microblog, which showed that in order to curb the high incidence of financial investment related economic crimes, Jianggan District Public Security Branch, Jianggan District Market Supervision Administration and Jianggan District Financial Office are currently carrying out violations against office buildings in Qianjiang New City Finance Enterprise troubleshooting. The Hangzhou West Lake District Government also recently issued the Notice on the Special Action Plan for Risk Screening of Illegal Fund Raising in the West Lake District, deciding to carry out the special action for risk screening of illegal fund raising throughout the district. The objects of investigation are mainly Internet financial platforms engaged in online lending, equity crowdfunding, third-party payment, fund sales and other businesses.

Self regulatory organizations in the Internet financial industry around the country also act frequently.

Zhejiang Internet Finance Alliance issued a notice on self inspection and rectification on its official WeChat, saying that it would organize relevant forces to carry out self inspection and rectification, report violation information in a timely manner, make risk early warning, and establish a long-term reporting system. A relevant person from the Hangzhou Internet Finance Association said that since last week, the investigation and rectification work in the field of Internet finance in Hangzhou has started, and 125 Internet enterprises were among the first to be investigated. After that, other relevant enterprises or financial companies will be comprehensively investigated.

Since the end of last year, E-Leaseball, Dada Group and Zhongjin Financial Management have been investigated by the public security authorities for suspected illegal fund-raising; At the beginning of this year, Jinlu Wealth Bank and Wangzhou Wealth suffered from cashing crisis due to problems in the company's capital chain. The successive outbreaks of risk events of these wealth management companies undoubtedly indicate that the emerging industry of Internet finance is experiencing an unprecedented crisis of trust and industry crisis.

According to the data of the third-party P2P research and consulting platform E-loan Home, by the end of 2015, there were 2595 online loan industry operating platforms nationwide, 1020 more than at the end of last year. However, the problem also began to be exposed rapidly. In one year, 896 online loan companies went bankrupt or ran away, more than three times as many as the previous year.

A person in the industry said frankly that at present, Internet finance companies around the world have split up. Great waves have swept the sand. Good platforms have survived, and non compliant companies are slowly exiting or transforming.

Zhang Jun, CEO of Paipaidai, said that this year the online loan industry will enter a very significant reshuffle period, and compliance development will be the theme throughout 2016. The industry will face the transition from no threshold to a threshold with considerable regulatory and compliance requirements. Platforms without corresponding capabilities will withdraw from this market. Now many enterprises have transformed to inclusive finance and consumer finance.