The fall of P2P, the rise of other wealth management products in China?

What’s the golden rule for investment? Don’t lose money. China’s middle class are thinking the same, and people are looking to P2P platforms for ‘safe and high return investment’ until the recent successive P2P company crisis from Jinlu to Zhongjin which has become a nightmare for the families who invested everything on them – the future of P2P products is uncertain.

Now it appears that that Chinese are fully aware of the potential dangers of the ‘guaranteed’ high return P2P platforms. We randomly asked some of the investors who happened to invest their wealth on these platform that how you plan to manage your wealth after you get the money back. The answers are various and it reflected the market status of the wealth management products in China.

Despite the uncertainty and some of the dishonest products, P2P remains the most popular options for a non-financial background investor. The guaranteed return and high return (8%-10%) are the key drivers. For those investors who have no financial background, the stock market seems to be a difficult channel to make money because it requires professional financial knowledge, a lot of time to follow-up and maybe some solid news or tip. Thus, that’s why P2P becomes a sudden success after its launch in China.

Obviously, it means that China market has great appetite for wealth management, especially for the entry level, higher return (rate higher than bank) product. We are expecting to see whether the fall of P2P, the rise of other wealth management product in China.