The Loan Brokers Are Deleting Their WeChat Moments

I

Wang Jie disbanded her last client group.

The group was called “XX Bank Direct Credit Department.” Its announcement still read: “Water release this week. Blacklisted borrowers accepted. Instant approval, instant disbursement.” She opened the member list, scrolled from top to bottom, and pressed “Dismiss group.” A message appeared: “After dismissal, the chat history will no longer be retained.”

She did not pause.

That same day, she changed her WeChat name from “Credit Manager Wang” to “Wang Jie” and set her Moments to “visible for the last three days.” Those three days were empty. Before that, she had posted seven or eight ads a day, from “monthly interest as low as 0.3 percent” to “no debt check,” always with photos of bank towers and disbursement screenshots.

“The era of loan brokers freely advertising is over,” said Zhang Guojia, a lawyer at Jiangsu Shengdian Law Firm.

On September 30, 2026, the Measures for the Administration of Online Marketing of Financial Products took effect. The key rule is one sentence: organizations or individuals other than financial institutions and third-party internet platforms may not market financial products online, or do so in disguised form.

Zhang Guojia explained that if a loan broker posts a loan ad on Moments without formal authorization from a financial institution, it counts as “another organization or individual conducting online marketing of financial products in disguised form,” violating Article 2 of the Measures. Even with authorization, a broker can only be a “channel,” not the “voice.” It cannot post under names such as “XX Loan Center” or “XX Credit Advisor.” The financial institution must publish product information in its own name.

Phrases once common on Moments, including “blacklisted borrowers accepted,” “instant approval and disbursement,” “interest as low as,” and “no fees whatsoever,” are all violations.

II

The rule was not a lone policy move.

On October 1, 2025, new rules on loan facilitation took effect, setting limits on institutional access and cost caps in internet loan facilitation. They directly constrain commercial banks, but through banks’ responsibility for managing partners, they also constrain loan facilitation platforms.

On August 1, 2026, the Provisions on Explicit Disclosure of Comprehensive Financing Costs for Personal Loan Business took effect. They require lenders to disclose principal, interest calculation, installment fees, guarantee fees, and overdue penalties item by item, so borrowers can verify the cost.

Then came the Measures on September 30, which blocked illegal marketing at the customer acquisition entry point.

Three gates now shape the industry: access and cooperation, cost pricing, and marketing chains.

Wang Pengbo, chief analyst at Botong Consulting, said: “This set of policies effectively declares that the era of unchecked growth in the loan facilitation industry is over. Next, compliance and asset quality will be the core.”

III

The regulatory response has a clear trigger.

One case is enough.

In Wuhu, Anhui, 22 mortgage loans defaulted at once. The borrowers all disappeared. Investigators found that all 22 had obtained loans through the same intermediary, which had defrauded banks of more than 20 million yuan by forging materials.

There are other cases.

A few years ago, many intermediaries targeted ordinary landlords with high-interest existing mortgages. The phone script was uniform: “Brother, your mortgage rate is 4.5 percent. Our bank now has a low-interest business loan at only 2.8 percent. Switch it over and you can save tens of thousands of yuan in interest a year.”

Salaried workers, dazzled by this “money-saving ledger,” often missed what lay behind it: to get a low-interest business loan, the borrower must have a company in normal operation. An ordinary office worker rarely has a ready company. The intermediary would warmly promise: “Leave it to us. We’ll help you buy a bridge shell company, help you forge upstream and downstream purchase and sales contracts and corporate account statements.”

The intermediary first collects a service fee of 3 to 5 percent of the loan amount. On a 1 million yuan refinancing, 30,000 to 50,000 yuan goes straight into the intermediary’s pocket.

Then comes the bridge fund interest. To pay off the original mortgage, redeem the property certificate, and pledge it to a new bank, the borrower must use high-interest bridge funds provided by the intermediary. The daily interest is often more than 0.08 percent. If the new bank delays disbursement by a week, thousands of yuan in interest pile onto the borrower’s head.

The cruelest trick is the “AB loan.”

The intermediary approaches borrower A, whose credit is poor and debt is extremely high. Knowing the bank will never approve, the intermediary deliberately leads: “Your personal comprehensive score is just a little short. If you find a relative or friend B with good credit to act as a witness or bank-statement assistant, the money will be approved immediately. The other person will not bear any repayment responsibility.”

Kindhearted B goes to the intermediary’s office to help. The intermediary swipes quickly on the phone screen, inducing B to cooperate with facial recognition and to sign and fingerprint. Only when collection calls flood in does B discover that what they signed is a loan contract of several hundred thousand yuan, with themselves as the sole principal borrower.

The intermediary takes a 20 to 30 percent commission on the spot. Borrower A gets the money and disappears. B’s credit report is destroyed, and all assets face court enforcement.

IV

Even leading loan facilitation platforms have suffered steep declines.

According to second-quarter 2026 earnings reports, seven listed loan facilitation companies almost all saw their business shrink, and profit fell much faster than revenue.

Qifu Technology facilitated RMB 63.377 billion in loans in the second quarter, down 25.1 percent year on year. By the end of the second quarter, its outstanding loan balance was RMB 107.562 billion, down 23.2 percent year on year. FinVolution Group facilitated RMB 41 billion in loans in the Chinese mainland market in the second quarter, down 19.3 percent year on year. Its outstanding loan balance was RMB 65.4 billion, down 13.3 percent year on year.

X Financial facilitated RMB 11.63 billion in loans in the second quarter, down 20.5 percent quarter on quarter and 70.2 percent year on year. By the end of the second quarter, its outstanding loan balance was RMB 24.97 billion, down 29.2 percent quarter on quarter and 61.5 percent year on year. VCREDIT facilitated RMB 5.69 billion in loans in the Chinese mainland in the first half, down 85.0 percent year on year. Its outstanding loan balance was RMB 7.73 billion, down 64.5 percent year on year.

Jiayin Group facilitated RMB 9.5 billion in loans in the second quarter, down 74.4 percent year on year. Lufax’s outstanding loan balance at the end of the second quarter was RMB 167.3 billion, down 13.5 percent year on year.

Among the seven listed platforms, only LexinFintech grew. It facilitated RMB 55.4 billion in loans in the second quarter, up 4.8 percent year on year, but its outstanding loan balance still fell 11.4 percent year on year to RMB 93.7 billion.

Profits fell just as hard.

Qifu Technology reported first-half revenue of RMB 7.476 billion, down 24.54 percent year on year, and net profit attributable to shareholders of RMB 1.289 billion, down 63.52 percent. FinVolution reported first-half revenue of RMB 6.613 billion and net profit attributable to shareholders of RMB 857 million, down 6.31 percent and 42.64 percent year on year. LexinFintech reported first-half revenue of RMB 6.496 billion and net profit attributable to shareholders of RMB 303 million, down 2.92 percent and 67.85 percent year on year.

X Financial and VCREDIT saw first-half revenue fall 48.47 percent and 61.23 percent year on year. Net profit attributable to shareholders fell more than 90 percent, down 91.39 percent and 94.44 percent, to just RMB 85 million and RMB 12 million.

Jiayin Group swung from profit to loss, with a first-half net loss attributable to shareholders of RMB 245 million and a second-quarter loss of RMB 184 million. Lufax reported a first-half net loss attributable to shareholders of RMB 694 million, compared with a loss of RMB 519 million in the same period last year.

V

Wang Pengbo said the rights and responsibilities in loan facilitation are being reordered. Loan facilitation institutions will return to being technology and channel service providers. Their business focus will no longer be reselling traffic. They will have to provide risk control and operational capabilities. When lenders choose partners, they will weigh asset quality and compliance more heavily. The model of simply trading traffic for cooperation will be hard to sustain.

“In the future, the overall profit space of the loan facilitation industry will narrow. Loan facilitation institutions can only preserve returns through tight operations and technology that cuts costs.”

A loan facilitation executive, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the industry will not disappear, but it will switch from growth to survival. In the past, many companies relied on high pricing to cover risk, high conversion to dilute customer acquisition costs, and high turnover to scale volume. That model is failing.

VI

Wang Jie still has not decided what to do next.

Her WeChat contacts still hold more than a thousand clients, most added over the past two years through Moments ads. Occasionally she receives a message: “Sister Wang, can you still do it these days?” She does not reply.

One night, she scrolled past a post from a peer: “Credit report basics: how long until overdue records disappear?” At the end was a small line: “If you have questions, message me privately.”

She looked at it for a few seconds, then scrolled away.

Under the new rules, using credit education as a cover for lead generation still counts as disguised marketing.

For ordinary consumers, one rule is enough: for legitimate product information, trust only the financial institution’s own official pages. Financial institutions should disclose and promptly update, through official channels, basic information on financial products marketed online and information on third-party internet platforms they have commissioned. They should also give consumers ways to inquire and verify through customer service hotlines or self-operated platforms.

For loan-related information posted by personal accounts, no matter how it is packaged, put a question mark first.

Wang Jie’s Moments still reads “visible for the last three days.” Those three days are empty.