In the past decade, shadow banking has taught China great lessons about capitalism. That is, except for the most important one: failure.
Since the 2007 financial crisis, China has poured more than $600bn into the economy to avoid getting caught in the downturn. Alongside the formal bank loans have been a flood of money from the informal or “shadow” economy. These loans have been funnelled through a variety of financial institutions, including government-owned trusts, investment banks, Mom and Pop shops and even the state banks. Shadow finance amounts to approximately 80 per cent of China’s GDP, up from less than 10 per cent a decade ago.
One corner of this shadow market has been an important teacher of capitalism to the ordinary consumer: wealth management products (WMPs). These financial instruments have ballooned into a $4tn market and include everything from investments in commercial property to a small business or a corporate bond.