This article only represents the author's own views.

Is providing microcredit services to rural China’s nearly 490 million residents good business? It looks that way if your name is Chongho Bridge Ltd., China's largest microcredit lender, which is bringing its rags-to-riches story to Hong Kong where it has filed for an IPO. But Chongho Bridge, which boasts of its prowess in “rural revitalization” and “serving rural areas,” is no pushover either, charging an average lending rate of over 17% to its rural clients, many of them farmers, over the last three years. That’s landed the company in some hot water periodically as some accuse it of predatory lending and being a loan shark.

Zhou Xiaochuan, former head of China’s central bank, once pointed out that rural finance is a critical organ of the larger “rural body.” In other words, China’s vast rural areas would have difficulty developing without support from specialty financiers who understood and can tailor to their specific needs.