[E330]Taking flight|经济学人
本文音频及原文摘自杂志The Economist《经济学人》2016年第4期，Finance and economics版块。
China's P2P lending boom
The allure[诱惑力;魅力] and the peril[风险;危险] of Chinese fintech companies
Jan 23rd 2016|SHANGHAI
ONE of the supposed virtues[所谓的优点] of peer-to-peer lenders—websites[人人贷;点对点网贷] that connect borrowers to people with money to lend—is transparency[透明性]. They often publish a range of information about those seeking loans (credit history[信用记录,信用历史], employment status[就业状况], income[收入]), so that the investors stumping up[拿出,付出;付清所需要的钱] the money know what they are getting into. So it is fitting that Imperial Investment, a Chinese P2P firm, is impressively transparent about its own circumstances. Earlier this month it published four separate notices from police, employees and family pleading for[恳求得到;请求] its runaway[逃亡的;逃走的] founder to return. “Our faces are bathed in tears,” the employees wrote.
Chinese media were far more phlegmatic about the woes of Imperial Investment, which has facilitated[使容易;使便利;帮助;促进] 935m yuan ($142m) in loans since its launch in 2013. “Runaway P2P bosses are no longer newsworthy[有报导价值的],” declared the Jinling Evening News. At the end of 2015, nearly a third of all Chinese P2P lenders (1,263 out of 3,858) had run into difficulties[遇到困难,陷入困境], according to Online Lending House, an industry website. It classifies them according to the nature of their troubles: halted operations[停止运营], disputes[纠纷], frozen withdrawals[提款冻结] or, as in the case of Imperial, bosses who have absconded. Running away may sound rather extreme but it turns out to be popular: 266 P2P bosses have fled over the past six months, by Online Lending House’s count. Although most of the firms in trouble are small, a few bigger ones have also come unstuck: Ezubao[e租宝], China’s biggest P2P lender, which has arranged $11 billion-worth of loans, is one of the firms with frozen accounts.
······
▷ phlegmatic [fleg'mætɪk]
adj. 冷淡的;迟钝的;冷漠的
He is too still, unmoved, phlegmatic to be happy.
他太安静 ,太冷淡,太不动感情, 因而郁郁不欢.
▷ woe [wo]
【释义】"O, woe is me!" This line is from Shakespeare. When Hamlet scorns Ophelia, she utters these words to express the grief and despair that will soon drive her to suicide.
n. 悲哀,悲痛;灾难
But they do not need your woe.
但他们不要你的悲哀。
▷ absconded [əb'skɒnd; æb-]
【释义】Abscond is to escape, often taking something along. As a kid, you may have absconded from your lemonade stand — with the coffee can of cash in hand, and your bewildered sister still filling cups for your customers.
vi. 逃匿,潜逃;避债
The company treasurer absconded with the funds.
公司出纳携款潜逃了。
▷ come unstuck
【释义】(idiomatic, Britain) To get into trouble, to have an accident or mishap[灾祸;不幸事故;晦气], to go off the rails[行为越轨;(在实际问题上或道路上)走上错误的道路;发疯].
遇到困难, 失败(弄糟)
······
Chinese P2P lenders’ many and varied problems might be expected to deter investors. Yet some of the bigger, better-run firms are still attracting serious money[吸引一大笔钱/数量可观的]. In December Yirendai[宜人贷], the consumer arm of P2P lender CreditEase[宜信], became the first Chinese “fintech”[金融科技;互联网金融] firm to go public abroad, listing on the New York Stock Exchange[纽约证券交易所] with a valuation of around $585m. Earlier this month Lufax[陆金所], a platform for a range of products including P2P loans, completed a fundraising[筹款;资金募集] round that valued it at $18.5 billion, setting it up for a keenly anticipated IPO[Initial Public Offerin首次公开募股]. Both companies pride themselves on their risk controls.
······
▷ deter [dɪ'tɝ]
【释义】Deter means to discourage. Many believe that the use of capital punishment[极刑;死刑(punishment by death)] deters people from committing murder. Others think that is hogwash.
vt. 制止,阻止;使打消念头
Nothing shall deter us from doing what we think right.
什么也阻止不了我们去做自己认为该做的事。
······
The optimistic scenario[乐观的设想] is that well-managed fintech firms will bring much-needed competition and efficiency to China’s sclerotic banking system, and profit handsomely[漂亮地;慷慨地;相当大地] while at it. The biggest lenders in China are mammoth state-owned banks[大型国有银行], which tend to favour lending to state-owned enterprises[国有企业] over lending to private firms[民营企业]. That cedes plenty of space to P2P firms to build up their customer base[客户群;客户基础] and deliver credit to previously overlooked segments of the economy[先前被忽视的经济领域].
······
▷ scenario [sə'nærɪo]
【释义】A scenario is a specific possibility. To plan on playing with a bunch of bear cubs is a scenario — a dumb one, but still a scenario.
n. 方案;情节;剧本
But we may not be able to do this for every scenario.
但是我们不能每一种场景下都这么做。
▷ sclerotic [sklɪə'rɒtɪk; sklə-]
adj. 硬化的,僵硬的;巩膜的
n. 巩膜;硬化剂
sclerotic tissue
硬化组织
▷ cede [sid]
【释义】To cede is to give up or surrender land, position, or authority. "She reluctantly ceded the coveted[垂涎的;梦寐以求的] position as the baby of the family to her brother when he was born. She would not, however, cede her bedroom to him."
vt. 放弃;割让(领土)
This island was ceded to Spain more than one hundred years ago.
这个岛屿在一百多年以前就割让给西班牙了。
······
The worry, though, is that the sudden rush of money into P2P could push even good firms into bad lending decisions[糟糕的/不良的贷款决策/借贷决策]. Outstanding P2P credit rose more than tenfold[十倍] over the past two years, from 31 billion yuan at the start of 2014 to 439 billion yuan at the end of last year. Average lending rates[平均贷款利率], meanwhile, fell from nearly 20% to 12.5%. Should inflows to P2P firms slow, lending rates will not be the only thing to spike higher: so too will the incidence of runaway bosses.
······
▷ spike [spaɪk]
vt. [美国英语]压制;阻止,制止;挫败
to spike a rumor
驳斥谣言
His promotional chances were spiked.
他被提升的所有机会全都错过了。
vi.迅速上升(或上涨) (up)：
Intrerest rates spiked up last week.
上个星期的利率迅速上涨。
······
经济学人系列阅读