CreditEase: Taking Inclusive Finance Online

The world’s largest peer-to-peer (P2P) lender annually disbursing over a million loans totaling $10 billion, China’s CreditEase, must decide whether to IPO in the NYSE its online lending platform, Yirendai, before the year-end window closes in 2015. Yirendai sought to capture its customers and make virtually instantaneous credit decisions online. CreditEase’s commercial success makes funding Yirendai’s growth not an issue. P2P lending in China, after explosive growth followed by notorious frauds, is increasingly controversial. On the way to becoming a global example of financial inclusion, as a result of its original business model, CreditEase also pioneered and became a leader in the wealth management industry in China, serving the country’s new mass affluent and high net worth families. With so many options, how should Ning Tang, founder and CEO, chart the future strategic direction of CreditEase?