SHENZHEN’S finance office is considering setting up a blacklist to regulate P2P lending platforms.

    In a letter responding to lawmakers, the office said the city’s P2P lending companies will be ranked from A to D. The ratings will be used to evaluate risks of P2P platforms and as a basis of routine management. The heads and major shareholders whose P2P companies are blacklisted will be disqualified for life from the financial industry.

    Shenzhen has more than 700 P2P platforms, ranking No. 1 in China, and the number of Internet financial companies registered in Shenzhen reached 2,295 by the end of 2015.

    Amid the booming Internet financial industry, problems and risks with P2P companies also emerged. Since 2013, 207 platforms were either closed down, suspended, dropped out of contact with customers or were having trouble repaying customers. Twenty-eight percent of all P2P platforms faced these problems. In 2015 alone, 151 P2P lending platforms faced such problems, accounting for 13 percent of China’s total.

    Police looked into 61 P2P platforms for alleged involvement in illegal fundraising in 2015, accounting for 36 percent of all illegal fundraising cases. The cases involved 4.74 billion yuan (US$728 million) with 84,000 investors named as victims.

    (Han Ximin)