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CreditEase, one of China’s earliest peer-to-peer lending platforms, is beginning to wind down its quasi-fixed-income products, which are currently valued at approximately CNY 50 billion (about USD 7.4 billion). This move has drawn significant attention from investors.
At its peak in 2019, these products reached nearly CNY 150 billion (approximately USD 22.1 billion), according to a financial advisor with 14 years of experience at the company. Over recent years, CreditEase has been downsizing its operations, and the current estimated size of its remaining products is between CNY 40 billion and CNY 50 billion.
The company is still in the process of compiling the necessary data and plans to publish a detailed wind-down plan within four to six weeks once the proposal is finalized and approved by regulators. Following this, they intend to negotiate individual agreements with affected customers.
Founded in 2006, the firm was among the first to implement the peer-to-peer lending model in China and eventually became one of the largest P2P platforms globally. As the Chinese government accelerated the phase-out of P2P lending between 2018 and 2020, the company announced in November 2019 that its platform, CreditEase Huimin, would cease adding new lending and borrowing services. Existing online lending activities were transferred to a separate entity, Yirendai.
Following restructuring, Yirendai was renamed Yiren Jinke, and it listed on the New York Stock Exchange in December 2015. The company rebranded to Yiren Digital in 2019, and in 2024, its Chinese name was updated to Yiren Zhike. Its stock experienced a sharp decline—down 14.4%—on May 22 after the announcement, and continued to slide the next day, dropping 10.6% to USD 1.43. In pre-market trading today, the price fell further to USD 1.40, down 2.1%.
Investors expressed concerns regarding the repayment structure. Sources indicated that most clients are high-net-worth individuals who invested over CNY 1 million (about USD 147,475). Many are anxious about how and when they will recoup their investments.
One investor, Mr. Chen, who had invested over CNY 10 million (USD 1.5 million) a year and a half ago, said, “I was stunned by how everything is being cleared out. Now, I just hope I can get my principal back.”
Currently circulating in the market is a potential repayment plan where the amount paid back would be calculated by subtracting all previous returns from the total outstanding balance. This would mean installment repayments would only cover the remaining principal, excluding all gains made through the investment.
“After doing the calculations, I realized I might receive almost nothing back if they only repay based on the net principal,” one investor remarked. Some long-term clients who rolled over their investments are worried they may even owe money under this scheme.
The financial advisor added that these quasi-fixed-income products originated from CreditEase’s earlier peer-to-peer lending activity. With the government’s push to phase out P2P platforms, the company shifted its focus towards microloan facilitation, including vehicle mortgages, online loans, and bank-partnered lending services.
He explained, “From what I understand, the assets backing these products include micro-credit loans and financing leases.”
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