LUFAX, one of China’s largest online wealth management platforms that is backed by financial giant Ping An Insurance, plans to exit its once-core peer-to-peer lending (P2P) business, sources with direct knowledge of the matter said. The move by Lufax to exit P2P, in which companies gather funds from retail investors and loan the money to small corporate and individual borrowers, is due to regulatory hurdles, the sources said, and comes amid China’s crackdown on the business to contain broader financial risks. The sources said they did not know exactly when Lufax’s P2P business would be shuttered, or how the outstanding business will be handled, but added that the company has already started the process of applying for a license in consumer finance, a business which it intends to focus on. A ditching of the P2P business and a focus on consumer finance could smoothen the path for Lufax to again pursue a stock market listing. The startup postponed a Hong Kong float slated for the first half of 2018 amid uncertainty over China’s consumer lending regulation, sources have said. Lufax was set up in 2011 as a P2P platform by Ping An. P2P boomed in China, becoming far bigger than the rest of the world’s combined P2P lending, until regulators took notice three years ago as claims of frauds surfaced, and as part of a wider government-directed crackdown on potential bubbles in the financial system. Lufax’s move to ditch its P2P business comes after it struggled to meet requirements since 2016 for P2P lenders to register with local authorities, two of the sources said. (SD-Agencies) |