人人贷:网络借贷安全否?

The rich farming soil in central China is an unlikely field for financial innovation but that is exactly what it has become.

中国华中地区肥沃的土壤，原本不大可能成为金融创新的“试验田”，但如今，这恰恰成为了事实。

When Shang Meigong faced a cash crunch in her vegetable seed business in Xiangyang, Hubei province, she was turned away by local banks and decided to look to the internet for funds. CreditEase, the biggest of a fast-growing pack of peer-to-peer lending websites, paired her up with wealthy people across the country who lent the Rmb50,000 ($7,900) that she needed.

当湖北襄阳的尚美功经营的蔬菜种子生意面临资金短缺时，她在当地银行吃了闭门羹，于是决定上网寻找资金来源。在如雨后春笋般涌现的大量人人贷网站中，规模最大的宜信(CreditEase)经过一番牵线搭桥，为她找到了异乡的有钱人，后者借给了她所需的5万元人民币（合7900美元）。

"It took just a few days to get it. The interest rate was lower than from loan sharks and higher than from banks, but the banks wouldn't lend me anything," Ms Shang says.

“几天后我就拿到了钱。利率比高利贷要低、但比银行高，可问题是银行一分钱也不肯借给我，”尚美功说道。

Peer-to-peer, or P2P, lending websites are at the leading edge of a microcredit boom in China. For a service fee, they connect people wanting to invest money with those looking to borrow small amounts, whether to attend school, buy a computer or start a business.

在中国小额信贷的蓬勃发展中，处于前沿的正是人人贷(P2P)网站。通过收取一定的服务费，它们将具有投资意愿的人与寻找小额贷款的人联系起来，不管借款者是为了上学、买电脑还是创业。

In so doing, they are providing a platform for loans to entrepreneurs who have founded some of the most productive businesses and yet have been neglected by banks, seen as too risky or simply too small.

通过这种形式，它们为创业者提供了一个获得贷款的平台。创业者们建立了一些最富创造性的企业，但在银行看来，它们要么风险过高，要么规模太小，因而往往被无视。

The P2P boom has not been trouble-free. The bankruptcy last year of one lender, Hahadai, exposed the risks and prompted regulators to tighten their supervision, with the China Banking Regulatory Commission warning that some P2P companies "were unable to ensure the safety of the loaned funds".

人人贷的繁荣发展并非一帆风顺。去年，贷款交易平台“哈哈贷”(Hahadai)的倒闭，在暴露出该领域风险的同时，也促使监管机构加大了监管力度。中国银监会(China Banking Regulatory Commission)警告称，部分人人贷公司“无法确保贷款资金的安全”。

But advocates say the lending sites are beginning to reshape the face of Chinese finance and make China a focal point for the fledgling P2P industry worldwide.

但人人贷的拥护者们指出，贷款网站正开始重塑中国金融格局，它将使中国成为人人贷这一新兴行业的全球中心。

"China has much more P2P potential than the US. You can understand the lack of credit penetration simply by being on the ground here," says Roger Ying, who launched Pandai.cn, a P2P website, last year. "It is filling an important void in the financial system."

霍中皓(Roger Ying)去年创建了人人贷网站盼贷(Pandai.cn)，他谈到，“中国在人人贷领域的潜力远远超过美国。只要踏上中国的土地，你就能深切体会到信贷渠道是何等匮乏。”他表示，“人人贷填补了金融系统中的一个重大空白。”

The government has prodded banks to lend more to small businesses but banks still favour larger enterprises, which can offer property as collateral or have state backing. That gap in lending has opened the door to a new breed of lenders: microcredit companies.

政府曾敦促银行加大对小型企业的信贷支持，但银行仍青睐向大型企业发放贷款，因为它们要么有房产作为担保，要么得到了国家的支持。贷款领域的这种缺口，为一种新型贷款机构提供了机会：小额信贷公司。

There are 4,144 microcredit companies in China, a sevenfold rise over four years, and their total lending increased 87 per cent last year to Rmb369bn, according to government data. While many are bricks-and-mortar institutions, from pawn shops to trust companies, Taobao, the Chinese rival to Ebay, has demonstrated in the retail industry that online businesses can flourish because the internet reaches vast areas still untouched by big brands.

根据政府公布的数据，中国目前有4144家小额信贷公司，这一数字在4年间增加了7倍，其贷款总额去年增长87%，达到3690亿元人民币。尽管许多都是线下实体店（从典当公司，到信托公司），但Ebay的中国对手——淘宝(Taobao)在零售业的表现证明，依托于网络的企业是可以取得长足发展的，因为互联网能够触及大品牌尚未触及的广阔天地。

The first P2P lending website was launched five years ago and Mr Ying estimates that there are at least 100 now. CreditEase says it alone has about 100,000 borrowers and that its loan book has been increasing 50-100 per cent year-on-year.

第一家人人贷网站创建于5年前，而霍中皓估计，如今至少有100家这样的网站。宜信表示，单是它一家公司就拥有约10万名借款人，其贷款账目同比增长了50%-100%。

"It's because people really need help and are not covered by the traditional banking system," says Tang Ning, chief executive of CreditEase.

宜信首席执行官唐宁谈到，“这是因为人们真的需要帮助，而他们又无法从传统的银行业体系获得帮助。”

P2P lending has also grown rapidly in the US and Europe since its start in 2005 — especially since the global financial crisis when battered banks cut their lending to small borrowers.

自2005年出现人人贷以来，这种贷款模式在美国和欧洲同样经历了迅速发展——尤其是全球金融危机之后，饱受打击的银行纷纷减少了对小型借款人的放贷。

The potential in China is far bigger. "There are about 60m micro-entrepreneurs in cities and 200m rural poor, so it is a huge market opportunity," Mr Tang says.

中国的潜力要大得多。“中国约有6000万小型创业者，还有2亿农村贫困人口，因此，这是一个巨大的商机，”唐宁说。

P2P lenders in China have an image problem, however. They have been damaged by association with China's "underground banks" — illegal lenders that charge annualised rates as high as 60 per cent. Established lending sites such as CreditEase and PaiPaiDai say their average rates for borrowers are much lower, at about 20 per cent.

然而在中国，人人贷中的贷款方存在着某种形象问题。由于被人们与中国的“地下钱庄”——非法贷款组织，年利率高达60%——相提并论，它们的形象显得不甚光彩。具有一定口碑的贷款网站，如宜信和拍拍贷(PaiPaiDai)表示，其借款人所需支付的平均利率要低得多，大约在20%左右。

There have been concerns too about the P2P business model. Borrowers typically must provide personal information, including their all-important ID number, which is released to lenders if borrowers default. Yet it is still unsecured lending, with no collateral posted.

人人贷的商业模式也引发了一些人的担忧。通常来说，借款人必须提供个人信息，包括极其重要的身份证号，如果借款者违约，贷款者将获知对方的身份证号。尽管如此，由于缺乏担保，它仍是一种不安全的贷款行为。

Nevertheless, regulators appear to be gradually warming to the sector, which Mr Tang says is seen as a way to make "underground lending" more transparent.

不过，监管部门似乎正渐渐认可这一行业，按唐宁的话说，这被视为增加“地下钱庄”透明度的一种方式。

The P2P companies have also become more upfront about confronting risks. At Pandai, Mr Ying has created a protection fund to partially backstop the lenders if borrowers default.

在防范风险的问题上，人人贷公司也变得更加未雨绸缪。就盼贷而言，霍中皓建立了一只防范基金，目的就是当出现借款人违约的情况时，能够为贷款人提供一定程度的保护。

"It is still too early to pick winners from losers in microcredit," says Victor Wang, a banking analyst with Macquarie Securities. "But if these operations are doing genuine business and not becoming loan sharks, then they are at least helping small corporations to have better credit access."

“现在要判断出小额信贷领域中哪些是输家，哪些是赢家，还为时过早。”麦格理证券(Macquarie Securities)的银行业分析师王瑶平(Victor Wang)表示，“但如果这些公司能作到诚信经营、不演变成高利贷，那它们至少是在帮助小型企业获得更好的融资渠道。”

译者:何黎