The Chinese government began to allow various new types of financial institutions (i.e. small-sum loan companies, community banks and private-sector banks) to be established from the latter of 2000s in order to institutionalize informal finance. However, reforming the financial system to institutionalize informal finance has been slower than expected and considering the Chinese government’s lack of initiative, it is difficult to expect that the reform efforts will gain momentum. This brings to the conclusion that institutionalizing informal finance in China still has a long way to go.