If the interest rate does not exceed 4 times the quoted interest rate of one-year loan market when the contract is established, online lending is not illegal. If it exceeds, it is illegal to exceed the usury. If the actor lends the credit funds of financial institutions to others at a high interest rate for the purpose of lending, and the illegal income is large, it will also constitute the crime of lending at a high interest rate.

legal ground

Article 175 of the Criminal Law of People's Republic of China (PRC)

Borrowing credit funds from financial institutions for the purpose of lending, and lending them to others at high interest rates, if the amount of illegal income is relatively large, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than three years or criminal detention, and shall also be fined not less than one time but not more than five times the illegal income; If the amount is huge, he shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than three years but not more than seven years, and shall also be fined not less than one time but not more than five times the illegal income.

Article 25 of the Provisions of the Supreme People's Court on Several Issues Concerning the Application of Laws in the Trial of Private Lending Cases.

If the lender requests the borrower to pay interest at the interest rate agreed in the contract, the people's court shall support it, except that the interest rate agreed by both parties exceeds 4 times the market quotation of one-year loan at the time of the establishment of the contract.

The "one-year loan market quotation" mentioned in the preceding paragraph refers to the one-year loan market quotation issued monthly by the National Interbank Funding Center authorized by the People's Bank of China from August 20th, 20th, 20th19th.