Online funds tempting investors

"In 2014, the turnover of Chinese peer-to-peer lending platforms reached 321.19 billion yuan, up 268.83 percent compared to 2013," a report released to Xinhua News Agency last month by the Payment & Clearing Association of China highlighted.

This year, industry statistics show the total trading volume on P2P online platforms topped 60.9 billion yuan in May, up 10.55 percent from a month earlier. The overall yield rate, or profit, increased by 8 basis points to 14.54 percent in May, but that was still down on last year's 19.6 percent figure.

"We have noticed that venture capital has accelerated on the P2P market since the beginning of this year," Yang Shuoyu, chief executive officer of the Shanghai-based P2P company Baotuodai.com, said. "Increased capital will help develop the P2P industry."

But the online market has suffered problems in the past, such as fraud, leaving investors out of pocket. Last month, up to 59 platforms reported difficulties mainly connected to "improper investments".

"Quite a few P2P platforms have been shut down," Wang Suzhen, deputy secretary-general of Payment & Clearing Association of China, said. "Some were just to set up as fraudulent enterprises. But tougher regulations and credit systems will soon be in place to stop this from happening."

Leading online companies are also playing their part by increasing investor protection.

CreditEase Corp reached an agreement with China Guangfa Bank earlier this month to help safeguard investors on Yinrendai.com.

Set up in 2012 by China's leading P2P lending and wealth management company, Yirendai has 4 million registered users with a trading volume of more than 5 billion yuan.

Its risk reserve fund is valued at almost 100 million yuan and the deal by CreditEase Corp means that China Guangfa Bank will oversee supervision of settlements for investors and borrowers. "This kind of agreement is ideal for China's booming Internet financial market by safely managing the risk to investors," Tang Ning, founder and chief executive of CreditEase, told China Daily last month.