Online loan search engines boom

"We only charge about 50 yuan for providing information to financial agents chosen by applicants or charge 1 to 3 percent of the total loan when it has finally been done," Ye said.

"In comparison with my off-line performance, applicants recommended by the engine have better qualifications for loans and the number of loan orders online a day can be about twice as many, " said Wen Tian, manager of Beijing Houde Guarantee Company Ltd, a small loan firm.

With rapid growth of Internet finance, web-based financial products like money market fund Yu'ebao created by Alibaba have been instant hits among the public, attracted by their better interest rates.

The financial innovations have had an impact on the state-owned banking sector.

Despite the boom of new types of Internet financial services, their safety is a public concern.

Police in east China's Zhejiang province published a warning last week to remind investors to be vigilant about peer-to-peer (P2P) platforms because ten had already been investigated due to illegal funding.

"Some P2P platforms have expanded their original businesses and become a capital pool," said Huang Zhen, a financial law researcher at Central University of Finance and Economics.

"Loan search engines do not touch money and only charge financial agents, which is different from P2P platforms," said Huang.

According to Huang, when search engines have gathered mass information, they will form an evaluation mechanism for all financial agents, which is good for the development of industry.

"We help rather than threaten traditional lenders," said Ye Daqing.

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