Central bank considers regulating online financing sector

The central bank is considering a rule to regulate the rapidly growing Internet financing sector and is expected to make it public in the first half of the year, a CPPCC member said on Monday.

"Several rounds of meetings have been orchestrated, involving the central bank and the banking, insurance and securities regulators," said the CPPCC member who has knowledge about the meeting but declined to be named.

Liao Min, director general of the China Banking Regulatory Commission Shanghai Office, said it is highly necessary to roll out such a rule to prevent potential risks, given the rapidly growing scale of the Internet financing sector.

Deposits in Yu'E Bao, a popular online money market fund, stood at more than 400 billion yuan ($65 billion) on Feb 14, up from 250 billion yuan on Jan 15.

Regulations for the online financing sector should be in line with that for the offline financing industry, Liao said.

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