View of the headquarters and head office of the People's Bank of China (PBOC), China's central bank, in Beijing, China, 17 April 2016. China's central bank is leading a wide-ranging clean-up of the country's unruly internet finance sector, including a suspension on registering new companies with "finance" in their names, local media have reported. Internet finance has grown rapidly in China over the past two years, but this growth has also attracted fly-by-night operators and outright fraud. Last week multiple agencies led by the People's Bank of China approved a plan for cleaning up internet finance, respected business news magazine Caixin reported on its website. The multi-agency task force will undertake a one-year crack down on fraud and risk in online payments, peer-to-peer lending, equity crowdfunding, wealth management and online insurance, Caixin said. Analysts have said increased regulation was likely to benefit larger players such as Ant Financial, the Alibaba Group affiliate, and Tencent Holdings by reducing competition from smaller rivals.
