Chinese central bank targets 53t yuan shadow loan market

Beijing

THE People's Bank of China (PBOC) is expanding the fight to monitor and control risks emerging in the burgeoning market for loosely regulated shadow lending.

The Chinese central bank has started collecting data from the murky world of online financing, in which firms make loans for everything from weddings to mining projects. It's a growing part of a shadow banking market that ballooned 30 per cent last year to 53 trillion yuan (S$11.1 trillion) - four-fifths the size of the economy, Moody's Investors Service data shows.

The PBOC also wants to make trading in some commercial loans transparent by building an exchange for transactions, according to local media reports.

The central bank has switched gears from stimulating growth in an easing cycle that started in late 2014 to clamping down on the financial and debt risks that threaten to derail a tenuous stabilisation in the world's second-largest economy. The monetary authority is taking on an expanded role among watchdogs as top leaders plan an overhaul of the nation's r…