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。