Alibaba’s finance affiliate¹ has banned consumer-loan products that charge annual interest rates above 24 per cent from its marketing² platform.

阿里巴巴(Alibaba)旗下金融公司已禁止其营销平台上入驻的消费贷款产品的年化综合费率超过24%。

The step is the latest sign of how tighter regulation is reshaping China’s once-freewheeling internet lending industry. Online consumer lending has boomed over the past year. Small-loan companies that lend online using their own capital have largely replaced peer-to-peer lenders as the main source of online consumer and small-business loans, following a regulatory crackdown on P2P.

此举进一步显示出，更严格的监管正在重塑中国一度不受拘束的网贷行业。过去一年网络消费贷款得到了蓬勃发展。随着个人对个人(P2P)贷款受到监管整顿，那些利用自有资金进行网上借贷的小额贷款公司已基本取代P2P，成为网络消费者和小企业贷款的主要来源。

Ant Financial, Alibaba’s finance affiliate, offers its own consumer loans but also distributes loans from other companies through Alipay, its online and mobile payments service. The move to delist high-interest loans from Alipay’s “Lifestyle” platform comes days after a multi-agency task force on internet finance suspended issuance of new licences for online consumer loan companies.

阿里巴巴旗下金融公司蚂蚁金服(Ant Financial)除拥有自己的消费贷款业务外，也让其他企业通过其在线和移动支付服务支付宝(Alipay)发放贷款。就在此次支付宝“生活号”平台下架高利贷商家的几天前，互联网金融风险专项整治工作领导小组办公室下发文件，要求暂停批设网络小额贷款公司。

“Our inspections³ discovered that products recommended by a few merchants on Lifestyle have problems such as interest rates that exceed the legal limit and inappropriate collection methods,” Ant Financial said. The company added that it would continue to monitor the platform and delist substandard loan offerings.

蚂蚁金融表示：“我们排查发现，有个别商家在其生活号上推荐的产品存在超过法定利率、不当催收等问题。”该公司还表示将“开展持续排查，下架任何不符合要求的生活号。”

China’s Supreme⁴ People’s Court ruled in 2015 that the courts only enforced collection on loans that charge annual interest rates of up to 24 per cent. It added that rates of up to 36 per cent were legally permissible⁵, but the lender had to figure out its own means of seeking repayment⁶ on defaulted debt.

中国最高人民法院在2015年规定，法院只对年利率不到24%的贷款执行征收。同时表示36%以下的年利率是法律允许的，但贷款人必须自己想办法收回拖欠债务。

That suggests the move by Alipay represents a conservative approach to managing its partnerships⁷ amid uncertainty⁸ about how regulators will proceed.

这也意味着面对监管机构下一步举动的不确定性，支付宝此举代表了一种保守的合作伙伴管理方式。