Chinese central bank to include internet finance into macro prudential assessment

BEIJING — China will explore methods to include large internet financial businesses of systemic importance in its macro prudential assessment (MPA), said a central bank report issued late Friday.

The central bank will improve its supervisory system and strengthen regulation of internet businesses, let industry and local associations play a bigger role in supervision, and promote new technology, said the report on regional financial development.

Development of internet finance has helped broaden the financial reach, improved efficiency of financial services, given Chinese more investment options, and helped some small businesses get badly needed loans.

The first peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platform opened in 2007, and exploded in popularity, with the number of such platforms increasing 18-fold between 2012 and 2015 and the combined transaction volume jumping about 40 times over the period, according to the State Information Center.

On top of P2P lending, internet finance also covers business such as third-party online payments, crowd funding and other financial services. As a result, risk in the internet finance industry has wide repercussions.

Authorities have strengthened supervision on businesses such as P2P lending, internet-based asset management and businesses spanning boundaries, third-party online payment, and advertisements of internet financial services, according to the report.

Since the beginning of this year, the central bank has placed financial market practices under MPA for strict control of liquidity risks and maturity mismatch risks.