Photo/Shetuwang

July 19 (NBD) -- Financial group Ping An Insurance-backed Lufax said on Thursday that the company is making efforts to meet the regulatory requirements of reducing the number of investors and borrowers and scaling down the peer-to-peer (P2P) lending operations. 

The statement came after a report by Reuters said Lufax plans to exit its once-core peer-to-peer lending (P2P) business and has already started the process of applying for a license in consumer finance. 

A retreat from the P2P sector and a focus on consumer finance could pave the way for Lufax to restart its IPO process, the Reuter report said. The company delayed a Hong Kong float slated for the first half of 2018 amid uncertainty over China's scrutiny over P2P lenders, sources said.

The Shanghai-based leading online wealth management platform underscored its P2P business is now under normal operations and existing products and customers' benefits wouldn't be affected. 

But this doesn't answer the question whether it will ditch the P2P business, industry insiders remarked. National Business Daily noticed that Lufax has handed over the P2P operations to its wholly-owned subsidiary lup2p.com since December 2016. 

According to Ping An Group's annual report released in March, Lufax has completed its Series C funding round which valued the firm at 39.4 billion U.S. dollars. The major investors include Qatar's sovereign wealth fund Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), Hong Kong's All-Stars Investment, China's Primavera Capital Group, Japanese financial firm SBI Holdings, previous media reports showed.  

Email: lansuying@nbd.com.cn