CHENGDU, Jan. 4 (NBD) -- Personal loans from Shanghai-based micro-finance companies online shall not exceed 200,000 yuan (about 28,766 US dollars) while loans for legal persons or other organizations shall not top 1 million yuan (about 143,831 US dollars), according to a tentative regulatory guideline concerning online microloan business of micro-finance companies released by the Shanghai Municipal Financial Service Office last Friday. 

The regional regulation stipulates that principal promoters of micro-finance companies must be China's top-ranking Internet companies with a stable performance or medium/large-sized businesses with Internet platform resources and rich experience in Internet service operations in China. 

It also bans microlenders from conducting credit asset transfer and other services online without authorization and selling or transferring credit products via online microloan platforms.