China's banking regulator launched a series of rules about two years ago to regulate the chaotic online lending industry. The clean-up included banning lenders from issuing large loans to companies and individuals. How have the rules been working? Our reporter Chen Tong has the story.

The regulations launched in 2016 set a maximum amount for the loans online lenders could issue -- one million yuan to businesses and 200,000 yuan to individuals, and the P2P companies have been busy cleaning themselves up since then. Data from Wangdaizhijia show that as of the end of May, the number of business loans over one million yuan accounts for only 11 percent of all loans, a year-on-year decline of 16 percentage points.

YU BAICHENG, DIRECTOR WANGDAIZHIJIA RESEARCH INSTITUTE "Online lending companies that were doing loans of over ten million are no longer allowed to do this, so their business has had to be shifted. And platforms doing large mortgage loans have also been affected. According to our data, the situation is getting better, especially in recent months. The transaction volume of many platforms has been declining significantly."

Some P2P companies admit that the maximum amount set by the finance regulator has created a headache for their business operations as many middle and small sized companies still need large loans which the P2P companies are now prohibited from making. So the P2P companies are now looking at other business areas such as consumer finance loans, which come in smaller amounts. Estimates from Qianzhan.com say consumer loans will account for 25 percent of all loans nationwide by 2020.

GUO YUHANG, FOUNDER DIANRONG.COM "Honestly speaking, we think the maximum of one million isn't sufficient for the needs of middle and small sized companies when the regulations were launched. Before that, issuing large loans was a major business of the p2p companies, consumer finance loans were not as hot as they are today. But since the regulations were launched, the whole industry has shifted its focus to consumer finance loans to individuals. That's why personal loans have been so hot in recent couple of years."

Currently, 12 percent of the online lending companies are still issuing large amount loans. The financial regulator has postponed, however, the deadline for the P2P companies to file reports of their business, and no specific filing date has yet been announced.