Agricultural Bank blocks P2P transaction access: report

Customers of Agricultural Bank of China (ABC) may find they can no longer buy peer-to-peer (P2P) investments via some third-party online payment platforms, as the bank is withdrawing such transaction access, reported Beijing Times on Thursday.

Four third-party payment platforms including ebatong.com and allinpay.com said they have received a notice from the bank, announcing the shutdown of the access, said the newspaper.

Spokesperson of the ABC declined to comment, according to the paper, while staff close to the matter confirmed the bank has started an inspection on P2P transactions.

The move comes as regulators seek to tighten supervision on China's booming P2P lending industry. According to statistics released by independent P2P portal wdzj.com, there were 2,595 P2P lending platforms in normal operation and 896 others with problems as of the end of last year.

The State Council unveiled a long-awaited draft regulation on P2P lending in December, while seeking one-month public consultation. Under the draft rules, P2P platforms will be banned from accepting public deposits, pooling investors' money to fund their own projects, or providing any kind of guarantee for lenders.

The new rules also require P2P platforms to deposit investors' money with banking institutions

The Agricultural Bank has been under the spotlight recently as two employees of its Beijing branch were reported last week to be under investigation for allegedly taking 3.9 billion yuan ($592.8 million) of bank's acceptance bills out of the branch's safe and cashing the same through repurchase transactions.