Hong Kong has recently seen the establishment of the Elephant Club Consumer Debt Fund, the city’s first hybrid fund linked to a peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platform, a structure that might be popular in Hong Kong until it develops specific rules on P2P lending, says one legal expert involved.
“At present, there are no laws and regulations in Hong Kong which specifically regulate peer-to-peer lending,” Michael Wong, a Hong Kong-based partner at K&L Gates, told Asia Business Law Journal’s sister publication, China Business Law Journal. “However, peer-to-peer lending, depending on the structure, could potentially fall foul of Hong Kong laws and regulations generally applicable to deposit taking, money lending and advertisements relating to investments and deposits.”
For compliance purposes, Wong and his team designed a structure under which, instead of having the investors directly lending to the borrowers, the investors will invest in an investment fund – namely, the Elephant Club Consumer Debt Fund – with terms similar to those typically applicable to loans.
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