7. Prospect of Online Lending Industry in China

Personal credit check refers to a process that a qualified third party agency collects, processes, and stores all the personal credit information from financial institutions and other entities to build up a personal credit database for the purpose of personal credit report and personal credit rating. In a modern society, market, finance and credit are closely linked with each other. As a result, for the healthy growth of China’s financial market, in general, and online lending industry, in particular, it would be critical to establish a credit checking system nationwide in China. Since the 1980s, China has gradually built up a credit checking system. In September 2003, People’s Bank of China set up a Credit Check Bureau. In March 2007, State Council issued “Suggestions on Social Credit Checking System”. In March 2013, “Regulations on Credit Industry” was implemented, which set up a legal framework for the credit checking industry. In addition, by the end of December 2012, the financial credit information database has contained credit files for 820 million natural persons and 18.596 million enterprises.