编者按：近期，中国原创财经新媒体财新网就中国网贷行业发展现状发表了一则报道，其中华夏信财大客户部总监Michael Beda受邀畅谈己论。Mike提到，网贷平台提高透明度可以让出借者更进一步了解该行业。
以下为报道原文：
附中文翻译
Investors in Peer-to-Peer Platforms Get More Protection
Regulators have taken another step forward in their efforts to protect investors and borrowers from unscrupulous or cash-strapped peer-to-peer (P2P) lenders by letting them check details of the banks the platforms use to hold their money.
The database was put together after financial watchdogs started to crack down on the P2P industry amid a wave of scandals and fraud that have seen thousands of investors lose money. To help prevent the owners of P2P platforms absconding with investors’ money, companies have been forced to deposit the funds they raise with banks authorized by regulators to act as custodians.
The information is now available on the website of the National Internet Finance Association of China (NIFA), a self-regulatory body for the industry overseen by the central bank and the banking and insurance watchdog.
P2P lending has been in turmoil for the last two years as regulators have worked to bring the loosely regulated industry to heel after a string of scandals and fraud, and the sector’s troubles show few signs of easing. In July, at least 165 P2P platforms either had difficulties meeting cash withdrawal demands, saw their owners abscond with investor funds or were investigated by police, almost triple the number from the previous month, according to a report by internet lending research firm Wangdaizhijia.
Regulators ordered every P2P lender to appoint one bank as a custodian of investors’ funds back in February 2017 after the collapse of Ezubao. Once the country’s largest P2P platform, Ezubao turned out to be a Ponzi scheme, which bilked about 900,000 people out of more than 50 billion yuan ($7.3 billion) in less than two years.
Under the custodian arrangement, the banks safeguard the money, but don’t take responsibility for loan defaults by borrowers or for the failure of the lending platforms.
The banks themselves were assessed by regulators to determine their suitability to be custodians and those who gained approval were put ona “white list” of compliant lenders. As of September, 25 banks had passed the evaluation.
So far, 53 P2P platforms have disclosed the details of their deposits at banks that include China Construction Bank, Huaxia Bank, China Bohai Bank, Baoshang Bank, Xiamen Bank, and China Merchants Bank, according to the NIFA website (link in Chinese).
Investors who provide the money that the platforms use to lend to customers can now check the names of the custodian banks, when the P2P companies signed the deposit agreements, and their 18-digit social credit identification number.
“Banks manage the funds, while the P2P lending platforms manage transactions,” said a risk management manager at a Chinese P2P lender, who declined to be identified. “This can ensure that funds are separated from transactions, preventing the platform from operating illegally without the authorization of investors, which can avoid situations like ‘self-financing’ and illegal fund-raising.”
Although P2P platforms are only supposed to act as intermediaries between borrowers and lenders, many set up companies disguised as unrelated third-party borrowers that then raised money from the platform’s lenders, a process known as self-financing. Although regulators had brought in rules in 2016 to ban the practice, they were unable to stop it completely.
Financial authorities are also stepping up supervision of delinquent borrowers. Last week Baihang Credit Scoring, a credit reference database for nontraditional lending, added information about P2P loan defaulters to their credit databases for the first time, to better deal with deadbeat borrowers in the online lending industry. The data includes information on borrowers who have defaulted on loans totaling nearly 200 million yuan ($28.82 million), with the value of some individual loans in the tens of millions of yuan.
“With new regulations for P2P lenders from China coming into effect, we see great changes coming into the entire ecosystem of marketplace lending,” said Michael J Beda, director at Shanghai-headquartered P2P investment platform Huaxia Finance. He said regulations to increase the transparency of platforms and allow investors to gain a further understanding of the industry will allow for more efficient investment by lenders and lower loan rates for borrowers.
译文：
网贷行业拨云见日，出借者将获得更多保障
在经历了互金平台爆雷潮后，近日，监管机构为进一步保护出借者和借款人，要求平台向每个出借者全面披露其存管银行账户的详细信息，先前一连串的行业负面行为让成千上万出借者蒙受损失，在金融监管机构的介入后，逐步将数据库整合在了一起。为了防止P2P平台卷款潜逃，监管机构要求将所募集的资金存入授权的银行进行存管。
公众可以通过中国互联网金融协会（NIFA）的网站查询到这些信息。中国互联网金融协会是一个由中央银行及银保监会监管的行业自律机构。
网贷行业近两年一直处于大浪淘沙的阶段，虽然监管机构已逐步介入这个行业，但是该行业的问题似乎在短期内没有缓和的迹象。根据网贷之家的报道，今年7月至少有165家平台取现困难，平台爆雷、卷款潜逃或被警方調查的数量几乎是上个月的三倍。
在e租宝庞氏骗局的事件发生后，2017年2月，监管机构要求所有网贷平台接入银行作为其第三方资金存管。e租宝曾经是最大的P2P平台之一，在短短两年内，吸收资金超500亿元人民币（约合73亿美元），吸引出借用户高达90万以上。
根据资金存管安排，银行保护平台募集的资金，但借款人违约风险和平台的经营问题则不在其责任之列。
监管机构对资金存管银行的资质也进行了评估，测试他们的系统稳定性等。通过的银行就会被列在合规互金平台的存管银行白名单上，截至2018年9月，已有25家银行通过测评。根据中国互联网金融协会报道，截至目前，在中国建设银行，华夏银行，渤海银行，包商银行，厦门银行，招商银行等平台上已经可以查询到53家网贷平台披露的存管信息。
出借者现在可以通过存管银行网页查询到借款者的名字、签署存管协议的时间及借款者的身份证号码。
“银行管理这些资金，而网贷平台则管理交易”一位中国网贷平台风控经理表示，“这既可以确保资金与交易分开，防止平台在未经授权的情况下非法经营，也可以避免平台自融及非法集资的情况。”
网贷平台本应充当信息中介的角色，而许多公司却伪装成第三方借款人，从出借者那里募集资金，这个过程就是自融。虽然监管机构2016年就已严令禁止，但始终没有在源头上杜绝自融的可能性。
金融当局也在加强对逾期借款人的监管。上周，非传统借贷的信用数据库-百行征信首次添加了有关P2P贷款违约者的信息，以此来更好地约束网贷行业的违约借款人。数据库中的违约借款人们拖欠贷款总额近两亿元人民币（约合2882万美元），其中一些个人贷款价值高达数千万元人民币。
“随着中国的P2P新的监管条例生效，我们可以看到整个借贷市场的生态系统发生了巨大的变化。” 华夏信财大客户部总监Michael J Beda表示，华夏信财是一家总部位于上海的网贷服务平台。同时，Mike也提到增强平台透明度可以让出借者进一步了解该行业，并且提高出借人的出借效率同时降低借款人的贷款利率。
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本文转载自Caixin Global
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