Fifth of Asia Pacific countries have banned P2P lending
22 per cent of the jurisdictions in the Asia Pacific region have prohibited peer-to-peer lending, while another 22 per cent treat it as either an unregulated or self-regulated product.
According to the latest report from the Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance (CCAF) at the University of Cambridge Judge Business School, just 50 per cent of Asia Pacific countries have P2P regulation in place, with another six per cent planning to introduce sector-specific regulations in the near future.
The “Fintech Regulation in Asia Pacific” study is the third in a series looking at fintech regulation around the world. The first report covered Sub-Saharan African, and the second study looked at the Middle East and North Africa market.
The CCAF found that the payments, emoney and remittances sectors have the widest existing regulatory framework coverage in the Asia Pacific region, but “significant gaps exist with respect to P2P lending”.
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While 90 per cent of the sampled jurisdictions have regulatory frameworks established for digital payments, just 50 per cent had a bespoke framework for P2P lending.
However, open banking regulation appears to be on the rise, with 35 per cent of the countries surveyed having a regulatory framework already in place and another 35 per cent planning to introduce one.
“Across the Asia Pacific region, there has been much variety in the regulatory response to the proliferation of the fintech market, particularly in the introduction of regulatory frameworks and the development of innovation initiatives,” said Professor Robert Wardrop, director and co-founder at the CCAF.
“Analysis of topical data regarding this regulatory response, as undertaken in this report, allows for regional regulatory benchmarking and knowledge sharing which is relevant to regulators and policy makers alongside the wide range of participants in the wider fintech ecosystem.”
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