Alibaba’s finance affiliate has banned consumer-loan products that charge annual interest rates above 24 per cent from its marketing platform.
The step is the latest sign of how tighter regulation is reshaping China’s once-freewheeling internet lending industry. Online consumer lending has boomed over the past year. Small-loan companies that lend online using their own capital have largely replaced peer-to-peer lenders as the main source of online consumer and small-business loans, following a regulatory crackdown on P2P.
Ant Financial, Alibaba’s finance affiliate, offers its own consumer loans but also distributes loans from other companies through Alipay, its online and mobile payments service. The move to delist high-interest loans from Alipay’s “Lifestyle” platform comes days after a multi-agency task force on internet finance suspended issuance of new licences for online consumer loan companies.