Former exec said to be held in connection with troubled Hebei loan guarantees

Li Lingcheng, former president and party head of Hebei Financing Investment Holding Group, has been detained by the party’s discipline arm in connection with a program that exceeded the legal amount of loans it was allowed to guarantee for banks, asset management firms, trust companies, securities firms and peer-to-peer lending sites primarily in the rust-belt province of Hebei, Caixin reported, citing an unnamed source. The program, run by subsidiary Hebei Financing Investment Guarantee was legally allowed to guarantee around RMB42 billion based on its registered assets of RMB4.2 billion, but defaults on repayment by companyes as early as July 2014.