China's Underground Lending $630 Billion a Year

In Cooling China, Loan Sharks Come Knocking

Such illegal lending amounts to about $630 billion a year, or the equivalent of about 10 percent of China’s gross domestic product, according to estimates by the investment bank UBS.

Already, according to a recent survey by the city’s small-business council, one in five of Wenzhou’s 360,000 small and medium-size businesses have recently stopped operating because of cash shortages.