Ma Shang Consumer Finance Co., Ltd. (referred to as Ma Shang Consumer Finance), a company that once rapidly rose through digital online models and came close to claiming the title of "China's first consumer finance stock," is now confronting a major developmental turning point since its establishment.
Recently, with the release of the 2026 semi-annual report by its major shareholder, Chongqing Department Store Group, the latest operational data for Ma Shang Consumer Finance was made public. This eagerly anticipated interim performance report has shocked the industry. The data reveals that both the company's revenue and net profit experienced a dramatic decline, dropping 75.06% and 68.82% year-on-year respectively, while total assets shrank by 14 billion yuan compared to the start of the year.
In fact, since the beginning of this year, Ma Shang Consumer Finance has made a series of significant moves, including withdrawing its IPO counseling and changing its general manager. Amidst tightening regulations and a reshaping industry landscape, this former leading consumer finance institution is bidding farewell to its past era of aggressive expansion, now facing a pivotal transition marked by shrinking scale and risk clearing.
Farewell to Aggressive Expansion, Total Assets Shrink by 14 Billion Yuan in Half a Year
As one of the first nationally licensed consumer finance companies approved to operate in China, Ma Shang Consumer Finance was established in Chongqing in 2015 and is one of the few leading "industry-backed" consumer finance institutions in the country.
It has been noted that since its inception, Ma Shang Consumer Finance completed three rounds of capital increases in 2016, 2017, and 2018, raising its registered capital to 4 billion yuan. Unlike "bank-backed" consumer finance companies that rely on their parent banks' low-cost funding and existing customer bases for steady business expansion, Ma Shang Consumer Finance chose the digital online track from the start. Without physical branches, it leveraged big data and risk control models for online customer acquisition and approval, focusing on small-amount consumer credit products.
During the industry's expansion cycle, Ma Shang Consumer Finance rapidly grew its market share, carving out a growth path distinct from traditional consumer finance institutions, with total assets consistently ranking third in the industry. However, its 2026 interim results present a stark contrast to past performance. On August 25, the interim report disclosed by major shareholder Chongqing Department Store Group showed that in the first half of 2026, Ma Shang Consumer Finance generated revenue of 2.178 billion yuan, down 75.06% year-on-year, and net profit of 360 million yuan, down 68.82% year-on-year. As of the end of June 2026, the company's total assets stood at 44.076 billion yuan, a decrease of 14 billion yuan from the beginning of the year.
This sharply declining interim report card sharply contrasts with the company's years of rapid expansion. Wind data shows that in 2017, Ma Shang Consumer Finance achieved operating revenue of 4.681 billion yuan, a staggering 1247.29% increase year-on-year. Revenue continued to climb in 2018 and 2019, reaching 8.333 billion yuan and 9.249 billion yuan respectively. Affected by the pandemic, revenue briefly fell to 7.604 billion yuan in 2020 before returning to a growth trajectory. In 2021, the company's operating revenue broke through the 10 billion yuan mark, reaching 10.010 billion yuan, and by 2023, it hit a phase peak of 15.795 billion yuan.
Profitability also continued to rise, with net profit maintaining growth for several consecutive years. Wind data shows that from 2021 to 2023, Ma Shang Consumer Finance's net profit grew strongly, reaching 1.382 billion yuan, 1.788 billion yuan, and 1.982 billion yuan respectively, with year-on-year growth rates of 94.26%, 29.34%, and 10.85%. In 2024, its net profit reached 2.281 billion yuan, an all-time high. However, amid pressure on overall consumption and tightening regulations on credit rates and debt collection, Ma Shang Consumer Finance's performance began to face headwinds. In 2025, the company's profitability saw a turning point, ending years of sustained growth. The annual report shows that the company achieved operating revenue of 15.534 billion yuan in 2025, a meager 2.54% increase year-on-year, and net profit of 1.924 billion yuan, down 15.63% year-on-year.
Why did Ma Shang Consumer Finance's revenue and net profit both "plummet" in the first half of 2026? What measures will the company take to improve its performance going forward? Inquiries were sent to Ma Shang Consumer Finance regarding these issues, but no response was received by the time of publication.
Five-Year IPO Plan Shelved Amid Tightening Regulations and Intensifying Competition
As a company once poised to become the "first consumer finance stock," Ma Shang Consumer Finance ended its five-year IPO marathon in the first half of 2026. In March 2026, information on the CSRC website showed that Ma Shang Consumer Finance had withdrawn its IPO counseling filing.
Back in September 2020, the former Chongqing Banking and Insurance Regulatory Bureau issued approval in principle for Ma Shang Consumer Finance's A-share initial public offering, with the raised funds to be fully used to supplement core Tier-1 capital. In January 2021, the Chongqing Securities Regulatory Bureau publicized the counseling filing information, indicating that Ma Shang Consumer Finance had signed a counseling agreement with its sponsor and officially initiated IPO counseling. At that time, market forecasts suggested that a successful listing on the ChiNext board would make Ma Shang Consumer Finance the first licensed consumer finance company to go public on the A-share market, opening a capital replenishment channel for the entire industry.
Five years passed quickly. Two leading securities firms, China International Capital Corporation and China Securities, served as counseling institutions, accompanying the company through 21 phases of counseling work. However, Ma Shang Consumer Finance's listing plan stalled at the counseling stage and failed to break through the gates of the A-share capital market. During the counseling period, the institutions continuously reviewed the company's related-party transactions with its shareholders, including shareholder deposits and business collaborations, and urged improvements. However, shortcomings in board governance remained unresolved for a long time. The counseling documents repeatedly noted that due to the resignation of independent directors, the proportion of independent directors on the board failed to meet the mandatory one-third requirement for listed companies. Even though the counseling institutions repeatedly urged the company to advance the selection and appointment of independent directors, this governance deficiency remained uncorrected until the counseling filing was withdrawn.
Looking at the broader industry context, regulatory oversight has intensified in recent years, continuously raising the compliance bar for the consumer finance sector. The new "Measures for the Administration of Consumer Finance Companies" implemented in 2024 requires newly established consumer finance companies to have a major contributor holding no less than 50% of shares. While the rules do not have retroactive effect and existing institutions are not forced to adjust their shareholdings, many consumer finance institutions such as Nanyin BNP Paribas Consumer Finance, Changyin Wuba Consumer Finance, and Jincheng Consumer Finance have initiated capital increases to boost major shareholder stakes. Ma Shang Consumer Finance, however, has not followed suit. Currently, its largest shareholder, Chongqing Department Store Group, holds 31.06% of shares, while the second-largest shareholder, Zhongguancun Kefin, holds 29.51%, reflecting a relatively dispersed ownership structure. It is important to note that such an ownership structure would be subject to prudent evaluation of corporate governance stability during IPO reviews.
In the fourth quarter of 2025, the so-called "assisted lending new regulations," the "Notice on Strengthening the Management of Commercial Banks' Internet Assisted Lending Business to Enhance the Quality and Efficiency of Financial Services," took effect, followed by the issuance of regulatory guidelines. According to a rating report from Lianhe Credit Rating, in 2025, Ma Shang Consumer Finance proactively adjusted its risk control strategies in line with regulatory guidance, reducing loan origination scale and shrinking risk exposure, leading to a decline in on-balance-sheet loan balances and open platform business scale.
At the same time, Ma Shang Consumer Finance faces increasingly fierce industry competition. Over a longer timeline, the company's total assets have consistently ranked among the top three in the industry, peaking at a historical high of 71.280 billion yuan at the end of 2023. However, starting in 2024, the company's total assets began to shrink, falling to 65.560 billion yuan that year, a reduction of 5.72 billion yuan from the previous year. Meanwhile, a host of "bank-backed" licensed consumer finance companies, including Ningyin Consumer Finance, Suyin Kaiji Consumer Finance, Hangyin Consumer Finance, and Nanyin BNP Paribas Consumer Finance, have risen rapidly. Leveraging the inherent advantages of their parent banks, these institutions benefit from lower funding costs, access to shared existing bank customer resources, and risk control systems built on bank credit data, giving them advantages in customer acquisition and asset quality management. With stronger anti-cyclical capabilities, some of these "bank-backed" institutions have continued to expand their balance sheets in recent years, leading to a major reshuffling of industry rankings. By the end of 2025, Ma Shang Consumer Finance's total assets had fallen to 58.101 billion yuan, with its industry ranking dropping to 11th place.
A 'Tech-Oriented' General Manager Takes the Helm, Accelerating Non-Performing Asset Clearing
At this critical juncture of transition, Ma Shang Consumer Finance is undergoing a leadership transition with the appointment of a new general manager. In May 2026, the long-serving general manager Guo Jianni retired upon reaching the age limit, resigning from her positions as general manager and director. In accordance with the company's operational development needs, Jiang Ning was appointed as the new general manager.
Guo Jianni is a seasoned female executive in the domestic consumer finance industry. She joined Ma Shang Consumer Finance in 2015, was approved as general manager in 2020, and concurrently served as the legal representative from 2021. During her tenure, Guo witnessed and led the golden development phase of Ma Shang Consumer Finance's rapid asset scale expansion and user growth. It has been noted that Jiang Ning, who has taken over from Guo Jianni as general manager, is a "tech-oriented" executive within the company. Jiang Ning has over 20 years of experience in internet architecture and fintech. He joined Ma Shang Consumer Finance in 2016, serving successively as CTO and Chief Information Officer, and Executive Deputy General Manager, deeply involved in building the company's technology system, digital operations, and fintech implementation, while leading the development of the "Tianjing" financial large model. In August 2026, the Chongqing regulatory authority approved Jiang Ning's qualifications as director, vice chairman, and general manager of Ma Shang Consumer Finance.
This personnel change coincides with the company's ongoing asset contraction and the withdrawal of IPO counseling, and is viewed by the industry as a signal of a shift in Ma Shang Consumer Finance's operational approach. With the tech-oriented Jiang Ning taking office, the management's technical expertise has been further strengthened. While driving business transformation through technology, asset quality control is also a practical challenge the new general manager must confront directly.
It has been noted that in recent years, with business expansion, Ma Shang Consumer Finance's asset quality has come under pressure. According to the Lianhe Credit Rating report, the company's non-performing loan (NPL) ratio has been climbing since the end of 2022. From 2022 to 2024, the ratios were 2.05%, 2.48%, and 2.49% respectively, with NPL balances increasing from 1.284 billion yuan to 1.533 billion yuan. By the end of 2025, Ma Shang Consumer Finance's NPL ratio had fallen to 2.34%, a decrease of 0.15 percentage points from the previous year, with NPL balances at 1.309 billion yuan, down 224 million yuan year-on-year. However, two risk indicators—overdue loans and special-mention loans—rose simultaneously, highlighting potential pressure on the asset side. Overdue loans climbed from 1.890 billion yuan at the end of 2023 to 2.523 billion yuan by the end of 2025. Special-mention loans grew even more significantly, increasing from 2.704 billion yuan at the end of 2023 to 4.877 billion yuan by the end of 2025, with the proportion soaring to 8.73%.
The Lianhe Credit Rating report indicates that due to macroeconomic conditions falling short of expectations, coupled with the implementation of the assisted lending new regulations, the availability of some consumer credit in the market has been affected, leading to a phased increase in risk across the consumer finance industry. In this context, Ma Shang Consumer Finance, while tightening its risk control strategies and adjusting its customer base, has maintained a strong pace of disposing of non-performing assets, writing off and transferring 5.265 billion yuan of NPLs in 2025. Since November 2025, Ma Shang Consumer Finance's NPL transfer projects have frequently appeared on the Banking Credit Asset Transfer Center's online platform. In 2026, the company has further intensified its efforts to clear non-performing assets. Based on incomplete statistics, the company has listed as many as 10 phases of NPL transfer projects on the platform in 2026, with the total scale of listed assets for the year already exceeding 5 billion yuan. Among these, the first phase was the largest, with total outstanding principal and interest amounting to 1.073 billion yuan, involving 580,615 credit loans corresponding to 352,965 borrowers, with a weighted average overdue period of 121.87 days. The asset classification was predominantly substandard at 99%, and the disposal method of "selling without prior litigation" also reflects the company's urgent need to accelerate the clearing of existing NPLs.
From rapid expansion to strategic contraction, Ma Shang Consumer Finance's journey is also a microcosm of the transformation of the domestic consumer finance industry. Against a backdrop of tightening regulations and intensifying competition, the past crude "land-grabbing" expansion is no longer viable. Risk control first and refined operations have become mandatory courses for licensed consumer finance institutions. Amidst this contraction and transformation, how will Ma Shang Consumer Finance navigate the "painful period," balancing risk management and business development? How will it complete its self-innovation amidst industry restructuring and get back on a path of steady growth? These are questions that warrant continued attention.