Given that China has the largest rural population in the world, the demand of finance is very high. On one hand, Agricultural Bank of China (ABC) is moving to serve urban areas, and Rural Credit Cooperatives (RCCs), currently the most important source of formal credit in rural areas, are not doing very promisingly. On the other hand, nongovernmental programs-microfinance institutions (NGO-MFIs) have been performing well in terms of reaching the poor in the remote regions; however, due to the government’s regulations they are only allowed to offer loans but not to take any deposits, thereby limiting their future development and growth.
China has been at the forefront of fintech growth and is the largest fintech market in the world. In terms of investments, according to the Accenture analysis, the value of fintech deals in China in 2018 was $25.5 billion. That’s a nine-fold increase over the previous year and accounts for 46% of all fintech investments globally in 2018. Among the growing sector in fintech is the digital lending industry. Some of the leading digital lending providers are:
- Loanbook
Loanbook is a simple lending application available for various platforms like web, Windows and Linux. The goal of the application is to simplify software acquisition implementation process for simple lenders like payday lenders from months to minutes. Loanbook is powered by Jisort platform which is a fully fledged banking system for SACCOs and MFIs. Loanbook setup is as simple as:
- Setting your default country,
- Setting your currency, and
- Setting your default bank.
The application is free to use for one user and only an additional user is billed.
2. Amazon
Amazon’s new loan service is the company’s latest initiative in China, after announcing the closure of its marketplace there last month. Instead of targeting Chinese consumers, the lending program is aimed at growing the number of China-based merchants who sell directly to Amazon consumers in the U.S. and the rest of the world, as Chinese sellers now account for a significant share of Amazon’s global marketplace sales.
3. Turnkey Lender
Turnkey Lender is a cloud lending system for automatic borrowers’ evaluation, decision making, and lending automation. It also brings features a combination of artificial neural network-based credit scoring with mobile-based scoring and classic credit underwriting approaches. With TurnKey Lender, a small or mid-size lender can start totally automated digitally enabled lending within several days.
TurnKey Lender commoditized this type of software bringing it to every micro-lender, to every local in-house financing company, lowering lending technology barriers and facilitating financial inclusion. They offer a free demo and a 14-day trial of the system.
4. Dianrong
Dianrong is a leader in China’s online market-oriented loan intermediary industry. Founded in 2012 and headquartered in Shanghai, Dianrong provides comprehensive and one-stop financial information and transaction matching services for individuals, small and micro enterprises, technology, compliance, The transparency rankings are leading the industry. Dianrong’s flexible and comprehensive fintech infrastructure enables it to design and customize rich borrower-end products and lending strategies. In 2016, Dianrong was elected as one of the executive directors of China Internet Finance Association.
5. Lu (Lufax)
Lu (Lufax) was launched in 2012 as peer-to-peer lending platform. It currently operates three business lines, namely wealth management, credit-rating services and other institutional businesses. It has taken over business of Puhui Financial, the consumer-cum-microfinance services operation of Ping An, as well as QEX, a financial products trading platform in Qianhai. Its customer base has increased by 39% to 25.5 million from the beginning of 2016, with over a quarter active users. As of September 2016, it has outstanding loan balance surge to 111.65 billion yuan and as of November 2016, its transaction volume by retail customers is 1.07 trillion yuan, while that by institutions is 3.22 trillion yuan. It has AUM of $53.1B as of August 2016.
