Baidu unveils P2P white list

Baidu has rolled out a white list of the first batch of qualified companies that offer P2P (peer-to-peer) lending, the National Business Daily reported on Wednesday.

These companies have government, State-owned banks, security firms, and insurance companies as their relative holding stockholders, according to Baidu, which tightened thresholds for granting platforms for these companies.

Baidu announced last week that it would clean up P2P lending platforms on its website.

This came after a string of fraud cases and defaults, the most appalling of which was a P2P lending platform Wangwangdai, which sold financial products on Baidu, that simply disappeared this month with a huge amount of money raised from individual investors.

However, some stakeholders questioned Baidu's authority in being able to establish these rules.