Beijing police launch criminal probe into wealth manager CreditEase

what happened

Police in Beijing’s Chaoyang district have started a criminal case involving wealth manager CreditEase, while its controller and several other suspects have been subjected to “criminal coercive measures,” according to a statement released Monday. The named suspects include Tang, a 53-year-old man identified as the company’s actual controller, and Zhao, a 51-year-old woman. Police asked investors to report their cases and assist with asset recovery and loss reduction.

The action comes after CreditEase unexpectedly stopped redemptions in May for quasi-fixed-income products valued at 30 billion yuan ($4.5 billion). Local outlet Yicai reported on Sunday, citing a letter sent to some investors, that the company had hired an outside firm to review its assets and liabilities. Preliminary work by financial due-diligence advisers indicated that CreditEase Group could be “insolvent” and faced a substantial shortfall in funds needed to repay debt, the report said. CreditEase did not immediately answer a Reuters request for comment.

CreditEase was established in Beijing in 2006. It launched the Yirendai peer-to-peer platform in 2012 and took it public in New York in 2015, becoming the first Chinese P2P lender to list overseas. Following the collapse of numerous P2P platforms in 2018, the group moved toward arranging loans for banks and other institutions under tighter rules, while also offering wealth-management products to affluent clients. US-listed Yiren Digital recorded a net loss of 944 million yuan in the first half of 2026, versus net income of 605 million yuan in the same period of 2025.

Beijing has intensified its campaign in recent years to reduce shadow-banking exposure and limit systemic financial risks. In April, a Beijing court ordered Zhongzhi Enterprise Group and more than 300 affiliated entities to be liquidated, a major move in dealing with one of China’s largest shadow-banking failures. The exchange rate cited in the report is $1 = 6.6921 Chinese yuan renminbi.

why it matters

The investigation and potential insolvency add to evidence of stress in China’s wealth-management industry as authorities continue dismantling shadow-banking risks.

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