Since 2012, when the Ministry of Commerce of China piloted commercial factoring in selected cities, the number of registered commercial factoring companies in China and the volume of registered capital thereof have grown rapidly for 4 consecutive years.

By the end of 2017, the total registered commercial factoring companies and their branch offices reached 8,261, about 48% higher than in 2016 and 90 times higher than in 2012.

In 2017, 2797 commercial factoring companies were registered, increased 0.3% from the previous year.

Till 2017, the accumulated volume of registration capital of commercial factoring companies exceeded 570 billion Yuan; in 2017 alone, the registration capital totaled 167 billion Yuan, increased 3% from the volume of the previous year.

The narrow growth of new-registration companies and capital thereof indicates that the rapid development of China’s commercial factoring industry will slow down. In parallel with upcoming new regulatory policies in 2018, commercial factoring industry in China may experience a period of adjustment, and the number of new-registration companies may largely decline.

Chart 1. Number of new-registration of commercial factoring companies each year (excluding cancelled registrations)

Chart 2. Accumulated number of registered commercial factoring companies each year (excluding cancelled registrations)