P2P lending in China hits record $15.3bn in August
Peer to peer lending continues to experience unprecedented growth in China.  The world&rsquo;s largest direct lending market topped 97.5bn yuan ($15.3bn) in August, according to a report in the Shanghai Daily. To put this in comparison, Lending Club in America has funded just over $11bn in loans since its launch since 2009. This number is almost four times the amount of P2P loans generated a year earlier and double the amount accounted for in March. Online Lending House, a web portal that tracks the sector, expects over 1 trillion yuan in online loans to be transacted for all of 2015. 
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CHINA’S peer-to-peer lending platforms transacted another record high 97.5 billion yuan (US$15.3 billion) in August, lifting the total volume of the sector to 863.5 billion yuan so far this year, amid an interest rate cut and a stock market rout, according to a survey released yesterday.

The monthly transactions were nearly doubled the amount in March, and were up 3.9 times from a year earlier, Online Lending House, a web portal that tracks the sector, said.

“A relatively high return rate of P2P platforms attracted investors in the last two months as the central bank’s interest rate cut led to lower deposit rates while the new round of the stock market rout saw uncertainty on investment return,” said Ma Jun, chief research officer at Shanghai Ying Can Investment Management Consulting Co.

The P2P websites are estimated to transact over 1 trillion yuan annually this year on growing demand to raise funds, Online Lending House said.

P2P lending, which offers easier access and higher returns than bank deposits, appeals to Chinese individual investors. There are 2,283 P2P platforms in the country.

New rules unveiled by the People’s Bank of China on July 18 are set to lead to the biggest reshuffle in the second half of 2015. They require online sites to serve only as intermediaries between lenders and borrowers and ban them from “enhancing borrower creditworthiness” by raising funds of their own to lend.

There were 7.5 billion yuan in problematic loans in the January-August period, Online Lending House said.