BEIJING — China's consumer finance sector is predicted to see more than five years of rapid growth in the coming period, according to a report published by an official think tank on Sept 24.

The acquisition rate of consumer finance services in China is relatively low as nearly 40 percent of adults had never had access to these services in 2017, the National Institution for Finance and Development (NIFD), a Chinese finance think tank, said in a report.

China's current consumer finance system mainly consists of commercial banks, licensed consumer finance firms and internet consumer finance companies, according to the report.

The limited service coverage could be attributed to the high cost of credit extension and a lack of credit information under the traditional credit system, said Zeng Gang, deputy director of the NIFD.

"With technologies like mobile payment and big data, internet consumer finance platforms can break the bottleneck of the traditional credit system, create digital credit for more people and improve the overall service coverage," Zeng said.

He also said that the sector needs to build a better risk control system and give financial technologies full play so that it can better serve the development of the real economy and people's lives.