China Merchants Bank Terminates Payment Support for P2P Lending Sites
Sina Tech, 2/03/16
China Merchants Bank has announced that it will stop support for direct payment or account top-up services for all P2P lending sites beginning February 5. The announcement cited a system upgrade as the reason, and the company has not responded to media inquiries. This is the second major Chinese bank following the Agricultural Bank of China to limit the transaction interface with P2P platforms.
In its notice concerning the immediate cessation of cooperation with rule-breaking payment organizations issued on January 22, the Agricultural Bank of China pointed out that some third-party payment processors have provided P2P platforms with a direct payment channel for Agricultural Bank of China cards, which extends the risk to the bank and has an extreme negative impact on the bank's reputation. Therefore, the Agricultural Bank of China required the immediate closing of any transaction interfaces with P2P platforms.
Editor's Note: For more information on this topic, please see "Beijing to Strengthen Management of P2P Online Lending Platforms," MD 1/22/16 issue.
Keywords: China Merchants Bank Internet P2P online lending Agricultural Bank