When Chinese peer-to-peer lending platform Hengjin Dai launched last June, it used a three-day promotion to lure investors. Just 12 hours later its website went dark. In a similar case the 22-year-old founder of Boliya, another P2P platform, whom state TV had featured as a model young entrepreneur, suddenly vanished. Police in Chengdu, the capital city of western Sichuan province, told the Financial Times they were investigating the case but declined to provide further details. Local media quoted a company employee saying they owed investors substantial sums. Even as P2P lending has grown dramatically in China over the past year, and venture investors have flocked in, analysts say that the industry has become a breeding ground for fly-by-night operators who once inhabited the world of informal lending. More than 136,000 people per day on average were involved in China’s P2P industry — as lenders or borrowers — in December last year according to figures from , a website that tracks the industry. That was more than triple the 39,000 in January. Loans outstanding reached Rmb139bn ($22bn) by year-end. But Chinese media is rife with tales of mismanagement, hacker attacks and allegations of fraud. Users reported problems with 275 separate P2P platforms in 2014 out of a total of 1,575, according to statistics from Wangdaizhijia, another industry website, based on reports from users. Another 32 have emerged so far in January this year. Of the 275 problem platforms reported in 2014, 60 were reported to have owners who ran away and 71 were labelled as “scams”. Some platforms fell into both categories. Most other problems involved users unable to withdraw cash from their accounts. But analysts say the lack of regulation has enabled the industry to deliver relatively low-cost loans to an increasing number of small businesses that struggle to access finance from banks, corporate bonds, and other traditional channels. “P2P lacks meaningful regulation at the moment, but the groups that these platforms serve are also those that traditional, standardised financial institutions have neglected,” says Kang Xiaomi, analyst at . “Setting aside the outright scams, and platforms raising money for their own use, and other fake P2P platforms, there are some that operate very good, standardised platforms.” While P2P platforms in the US are increasingly drawing in institutional funds, China’s online lending industry is still overwhelmingly the province of retail investors seeking higher returns than those available on traditional bank deposits. The industry is also tapping into established informal financing networks that have long been the primary source of funding for small businesses. Businesses that once turned to family, friends and cash-rich local entrepreneurs for high-interest loans can now access a more competitive market. In 2012 the coastal city of Wenzhou — known for its small factories, pictured, and the less-regulated lending networks that serve them — established a financial-reform zone intended to bring private lending out of the shadows and expand financing options for small firms. The move came after Wenzhou experienced a damaging chain of defaults on informal loans in 2011. While economists lauded the goals of the pilot project, its impact has been minimal. Meanwhile, for all its problems, analysts say that P2P firms have done more to increase standardisation and lower costs of informal lending than the state-led approach used in Wenzhou. “Compared to private lending, P2P offers borrowers a higher quality, transparent, convenient and personalised financial service,” says Ms Kang. 去年6月，中國個人對個人(P2P)貸款平臺“恆金貸”上線後，宣佈將開展爲期3天的促銷活動，以吸引投資者。12小時後，該網站打不開了。 還有一個案例是，另一家P2P平臺“鉑利亞”22歲的創始人突然跑路了。中國中央電視臺曾把他作爲青年創業者模範進行報道。 四川省會成都市的警方對英國《金融時報》表示，此案正在調查中，但拒絕提供更多細節。當地媒體援引一名鉑利亞員工的話稱，他們欠了投資者很多錢。 過去一年裏，P2P借貸活動在中國發展得十分迅猛，風險投資家們也紛紛入股P2P平臺。但分析人士表示，該行業已成爲那些曾經潛伏在非正規信貸領域的投機者的溫牀，這些人唯利是圖，不講誠信。 跟蹤P2P行業的網站“第一網貸”()的數據顯示，去年12月，中國P2P行業平均每天參與交易的人數（貸款人和借款人）高於13.6萬。較去年1月的3.9萬增加了兩倍多。截止去年底貸款餘額達到1390億元人民幣（合220億美元）。 但中國媒體關於P2P平臺的報道中充斥着管理不善、黑客攻擊和欺詐等各種說法。 另一家行業網站“網貸之家”根據用戶報告彙總得出，2014年中國共有1575家P2P平臺，其中有275家出了問題。今年1月以來又有32家P2P平臺上線。 在2014年被用戶指出的275家問題平臺中，據稱有60家老闆跑路，71家被稱爲“騙局”。有些平臺同時符合這兩種情況。其他大多數平臺的問題，是用戶無法提現。 但分析人士表示，缺乏監管使得該行業能夠爲數量越來越多的小企業提供成本相對較低的貸款，這類企業很難透過銀行貸款、發行公司債等傳統渠道融資。 “目前P2P缺乏有效監管，但這些平臺所服務的羣體也正是那些被傳統、標準化的金融機構所忽略的羣體，”第一網貸分析師康小密表示。 “拋開那些徹頭徹尾的騙局、自融平臺以及其他假冒P2P平臺，也有一些運營良好的標準化平臺。” 在美國，P2P平臺正吸引越來越多的機構資金，但中國網貸行業主要仍是散戶投資者的天下，他們希望獲得比傳統銀行存款更高的收益。 中國網貸行業也在利用既有的非正規融資網絡，這種網絡長期以來一直是小企業的主要融資來源。那些曾經向親屬、朋友和資金充沛的當地企業家借入高息貸款的企業，如今可以進入一個更具競爭力的市場融資了。 溫州是一座以大量小工廠以及爲小工廠服務的受監管較少的貸款網絡而聞名的沿海城市。2012年，溫州成立了一個金融改革試驗區，旨在讓民間借貸走出影子金融地帶，爲小企業提供更多融資選擇。 此前的2011年，溫州發生了一連串危害極大的非正規貸款違約事件。儘管經濟學家們稱讚該試點計劃的目標，其實際成效卻是微乎其微的。 同時，儘管存在這樣那樣的問題，分析人士表示，相比溫州採用的政府帶頭的做法，P2P公司採取了更多措施，以提高非正規信貸的標準化程度，降低成本。 “與民間借貸相比，P2P爲借款人提供了質量、透明度、便利度和個性化程度都更高的金融服務，”康小密表示。
