CreditEase was China's first P2P lender, founded in 2006; since its founding the firm has been expanding its services to wealth management and robo advice; Ning Tang, CreditEase founder and CEO, provides his insight on the business and the online lending industry in an interview; highlights how the company plans to expand its business lines through partnerships while also managing regulatory controls. Source
[This is the first in a two part series on the Chinese p2p lending market. Tomorrow we will bring you...
CreditEase has been reporting significant fintech investment from a range of fintech funds managed by the firm; it announced this week that its CreditEase Wealth Management Offshore Private Credit Fund (OPCF) was investing $30 million in OnDeck and LendingHome and that it also had plans for another Offshore Private Credit Fund (OPCF II) focused on fintech with a $200 million investment target; at LendIt USA 2017 the firm announced three new fintech investments for its CreditEase Fintech Investment Fund (CEFIF) which has $1 billion in total committed capital; it's also investing in Israeli fintech through two funds focused on tech startups in Israel. Source
Ning Tang, founder of CreditEase speaks about 2016 headwinds faced by Yirendai, the company's P2P lending arm; in August, 2016 the stock declined after new rules were put in place by Chinese authorities on P2P lenders; according to Ning Tang, "We need to do more in terms of investor education and communication as most of the international investors do not have a clear understanding of China's credit market and financial innovation."; 2016 transaction volume was 20 billion yuan ($2.92 billion) in 2016; Tang eyes 100 billion yuan ($14.59 billion) by 2020; looking forward, the company plans to form closer relationships with traditional banks to reach offline customers. Source
Asset allocation is an emerging concept increasingly being introduced to Chinese retail investors who have historically invested in highly volatile markets; CreditEase is one fintech company in the region seeking to educate and support more strategic investing through robo advisory services; the fintech company launched its Toumi robo adviser service in May 2016; the automated service provides advice for clients based on age, risk aversion and other preferences; it offers stable returns with low fees; with numerous cases of fraud from fintech investing in China more of the retail population is interested in safer robo advisory investment options; the country currently has approximately RMB 100 trillion ($14.5 trillion) in personal investable assets with nearly all the major banks developing new robo adviser services. Source
CreditEase Wealth Management announced the first close of their second fund dedicated to investing in Israeli tech startups; the amount raised was $32.2 million; final target for the fund is $50 million; the focus of investments will include virtual and augmented reality, artificial intelligence and machine learning, digital healthcare, internet of things technology, cloud and data storage, and advanced manufacturing. Source
The Asian Banker has awarded CreditEase Wealth Management with its first Best Non-Bank Private Wealth Product award; the award was part of the Asian Banker's awards program which has been recognizing financial services companies for 16 years; voting was done by an advisory board using detailed criteria to identify the non-bank with the best solutions for meeting the needs of high net worth customers by matching their risk profiles and investment objectives; CreditEase's CEO Ning Tang said its wealth planners focus on cross-border, cross-regional portfolios with multi-asset classes for clients and that its Toumi RA robo advisor service was created to help clients evaluate and minimize risks with a scientific portfolio. Source
CreditEase CEO Ning Tang is looking to offer an investment alternative to real estate investors by launching a fund of funds focused on real estate projects; currently investors in China need to directly buy property and hope the assets appreciate in value; the fund of funds strategy that CreditEase is looking to employ will allow investors to have access to leading real estate funds managed by Blackstone and KKR. Source.
In an opinion article, one investor shares emails that have been leaked at Chinese marketplace lender Yirendai (NYSE: YRD); leaked emails show the company's chairman requiring parent company employees at CreditEase to invest in a fund to purchase undisclosed US equities; the author states the fund is likely purchasing shares of YRD and presents his case for shorting the stock; the stock recently saw volatility following China's new regulatory guidance for P2P lenders. Source
In an interview with CNBC, Ning Tang, CEO of CreditEase, provides insight on the China Banking Regulatory Commission’s regulation for China’s P2P lending industry; says the regulation will have positive long-term affects; focuses on the requirement of P2P lenders to work with banks as a custodian and says CreditEase has complied with this requirement for many years. Source