Two further Chinese banks end support for P2P lenders

China Merchants Bank (CMB) announced yesterday that it will no longer support direct payment or account top-up services for all P2P lending sites, citing a system upgrade as the reason. This makes CMB the second major Chinese bank (the first was Agricultural Bank of China (ABC)) to limit access to P2P platforms. When ABC made its original statement on the subject is stated that “some third-party payment processors have provided P2P platforms with a direct payment channel for Agricultural Bank of China cards, which extends the risk to the bank and has an extremely negative impact on the bank's reputation.”
Furthermore, news just out out this morning states that China's Bank of Communication has also stopped supporting P2P plaforms, becoming the third large Chinese bank to do so.
 

Sina Tech, 2/03/16

China Merchants Bank has announced that it will stop support for direct payment or account top-up services for all P2P lending sites beginning February 5. The announcement cited a system upgrade as the reason, and the company has not responded to media inquiries. This is the second major Chinese bank following the Agricultural Bank of China to limit the transaction interface with P2P platforms.

In its notice concerning the immediate cessation of cooperation with rule-breaking payment organizations issued on January 22, the Agricultural Bank of China pointed out that some third-party payment processors have provided P2P platforms with a direct payment channel for Agricultural Bank of China cards, which extends the risk to the bank and has an extreme negative impact on the bank's reputation. Therefore, the Agricultural Bank of China required the immediate closing of any transaction interfaces with P2P platforms.

Editor's Note: For more information on this topic, please see "Beijing to Strengthen Management of P2P Online Lending Platforms," MD 1/22/16 issue.

Keywords: China Merchants Bank Internet P2P online lending Agricultural Bank