China imposed new rules to tighten the regulation of the country’s 100 $ billion peer-to-peer lending sector.

The so-called P2P industry, in which borrowers are matched with investors via online platforms, has had a lot of success in China. Outstanding loans from China P2P lending platforms totalled Rmb 816.2bn at the end of December, doubling the figure from a year earlier, according to P2P consultant WDZJ.com.

Borrowers are drawn to such sites because they can get easier access to loans without going through the traditional banking system, and lenders participate because they can charge higher interest rates. However, the P2P sector has been subjected to multiple scandals and multibillion-dollar scams, so the new rules are the first effort to bring an order to industry.

Under the People’s Bank of China new guidelines, finance platforms will be limited to roles as intermediaries between lenders and borrowers.

In addition, lenders will have to set up custodian accounts at qualified banks in order to ensure the safety of investors’ money. However, just 183 lending platforms established custodian accounts at commercial banks by the end of last year, as media reported this month.

While it is expected that this regulations will wipe out many of the country’s more than 2,400 lending platforms, leading services like CreditEase or Lufax.com are viewing the new guidelines as a positive sign, contending they may help weed out scammers and other dubious players.