China's Internet bank launches its first loan product

SHENZHEN - WeBank, China's first Internet-based bank,launched its first loan product on Friday night.

The product, named "Weilidai", provides small credit loans to users free of guarantee or collateral, said Chen Jing, an executive at WeBank.

It could provide 24/7 service via QQ wallet, a mobile payment service, and allows users to borrow and repay the money anytime with a daily interest of around 0.05 percent.

The Internet bank does not specify the loan ceiling of this service. Currently, the service on trial is not available to all users.

Chen said WeBank will expand its use gradually in the future.

The bank will control default risks via big data collected by social networking platforms or by the third party.

In the next step, WeBank will launch more services related to money management and payment to meet the demands of users, said Chen.

Based in the southern city of Shenzhen, WeBank has registered capital of 3 million yuan ($482,276). Tencent, which operates the popular messaging apps WeChat and QQ, holds a 30 percent majority stake in it.