Tighter rules may trigger P2P industry shakeout

Only one out of the nine peer-to-peer lending companies in China might be able to survive as top financial regulators are stepping up the pace of scrutiny to curb risks caused by the massive unregulated sprawl in the past few years.

The central government plans to maintain "pressing posture of severe attack" to clamp down on activities violating laws and regulations in internet finance, extending the ongoing nationwide crackdown for another year, Pan Gongsheng, deputy governor of the People's Bank of China, the central bank, said during a meeting on Monday.

The two-year cleanup of the industry was necessitated by a series of scandals that saw investors lose huge amounts of money.