According to the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission website on the 17th, five ministries and commissions, including China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission, China, jointly issued the Notice on Further Regulating the Supervision and Management of College Students’ Internet Consumer Loans to further standardize the supervision and management of college students’ Internet consumer loans and earnestly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of college students. The full text is as follows:
All banking insurance regulatory bureaus, information offices of provinces (autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government and cities with separate plans), Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, Education Department (Education Bureau, Education Committee), Public Security Department (Bureau), local financial supervision and administration bureau, Shanghai headquarters of China People’s Bank, branches, business management departments, provincial capital city center branches, sub-provincial city center branches, major banks and joint-stock banks, and institutions of higher learning affiliated to the central government:
Recently, some small loan companies have targeted the university campus, conducted induced marketing through cooperation with technology companies, and issued internet consumption loans for college students (hereinafter referred to as college students), which lured college students into excessive consumption ahead of schedule, causing some college students to fall into the trap of high loans, infringing on their legitimate rights and interests, and causing bad social impact. In order to further standardize college students’ Internet consumption loan business and strengthen education and guidance, relevant matters are hereby notified as follows:
First, strengthen the supervision and management of college students’ Internet consumer loan business
(A) regulate the Internet consumer loans lending behavior of college students
Microfinance companies should strengthen the substantive verification of the identity of loan customers, and should not set college students as the target customer groups of Internet consumer loans, nor should they conduct precise marketing for college students, nor should they issue Internet consumer loans to college students. The outsourcing cooperative institutions of lending institutions shall strengthen the screening of customers, and shall not use false, misleading or induced publicity and other improper means to induce college students to consume ahead of time and borrow excessively, nor shall they accurately market for college students, nor shall they push and drain college students to lending institutions.
Banking financial institutions should strictly abide by the risk bottom line, prudently carry out college students’ Internet consumer loan business, establish and improve appropriate risk management systems and early warning mechanisms, strengthen pre-loan investigation and evaluation, and attach importance to post-loan management and supervision to ensure that risks are controllable.
Institutions established without the approval of the banking regulatory department or the local financial regulatory department may not provide credit services for college students.
(B) strict risk management of college students’ Internet consumption loans
In order to meet the reasonable consumer credit demand of college students, all banking financial institutions can develop targeted and differentiated Internet consumer credit products under the premise of controllable risks, follow the principles of small amount, short-term and controllable risks, strictly limit the loan balance of the same borrower and the total business scale of college students’ Internet consumer loans, strengthen product marketing management, and strictly examine the qualifications of college students to improve asset quality.
In order to strengthen marketing management, banking financial institutions and their cooperative institutions should not conduct online accurate marketing for college students. Offline marketing publicity activities carried out on campus should be reported to the regulatory authorities of the marketing area in advance, and the specific place, date, time and content of marketing activities should be informed in advance and the consent of the educational institutions should be obtained. Marketing activities should not use deceptive, misleading or induced publicity to induce college students to apply for consumer loans.
It is necessary to strictly examine the pre-loan qualifications, substantively examine and identify the identity of college students and the real loan purpose, comprehensively evaluate the credit information, income, tax and other information of college students, fully understand the credit status, strictly implement the second repayment source of college students, confirm the authenticity of the identity of the second repayment source by telephone and other reasonable means, obtain written guarantee materials that the second repayment source (parents, guardians or other managers, etc.) with repayment ability agrees with their loan behavior and is willing to repay on their behalf, and strictly control the credit qualification of college students.
It is necessary to strengthen post-loan management to ensure that the flow of loan funds conforms to the provisions of the loan contract; Properly handle overdue loans, standardize collection management, and prohibit any violent collection behavior that interferes with the normal study and life of college students; Timely grasp the changes of college students’ capital flow and credit status, improve the response plan, and ensure that the overall business risk of college students’ Internet consumer loans is controllable.
It is necessary to strengthen the personal information security protection of college students, establish and strictly enforce the rules and regulations to ensure information security, take effective technical measures to properly manage the basic information of college students, and not send the information of loan students to third-party institutions, or illegally disclose, expose or buy or sell the information of loan students.
It is necessary to strengthen the submission of credit information, and submit all credit information of college students’ Internet consumer loans to the basic database of financial credit information in a timely, complete and accurate manner in accordance with the Regulations on the Administration of Credit Information Industry. Students who do not agree to submit credit information may not be granted loans.
(3) Strengthen risk remediation and supervision and inspection.
Local financial supervision and management departments and banking insurance regulatory bureaus should, on the basis of the previous campus loan rectification work of online lending institutions, include various lending institutions such as microfinance companies and consumer finance companies into the rectification category, and comprehensively use various means such as website monitoring, fund monitoring, on-site inspection and data analysis to further strengthen the supervision, inspection and investigation of college students’ Internet consumer loan business. At the same time, increase the investigation and crackdown on illegal lending institutions.
For college students’ Internet consumption loans that have been issued, first, we should urge microfinance companies to make rectification plans. In principle, loans that have been issued will not be extended, and the existing business will be gradually digested. It is strictly forbidden to add new business in violation of regulations. Second, it is necessary to urge banking financial institutions to strengthen investigations, rectify illegal businesses within a time limit, and strictly implement risk management requirements. Institutions that refuse to rectify the problems found in the investigation or whose circumstances are serious should be severely punished and cracked down, and those suspected of committing crimes should be transferred to judicial organs.
Two, increase the education, guidance and assistance to students, and create a good campus environment.
Colleges and universities should earnestly shoulder the main responsibility of student management, strengthen students’ financial knowledge education and assistance, guide students to establish a correct concept of consumption, and earnestly safeguard students’ rights and interests and campus stability. First, vigorously carry out financial knowledge popularization education. It is necessary to strengthen financial knowledge publicity and education, incorporate financial common sense education into daily education, and continue to carry out financial knowledge publicity. Regularly carry out financial knowledge into campus activities, invite financial regulators and banking financial institutions to give lectures on knowledge, explain the harm of bad online loans, and analyze the cases of bad online loans on campus such as "idolize", so as to effectively improve students’ awareness of financial security. Strengthen the education of honesty and credit awareness, educate students to provide information truthfully when applying for loans, and not intentionally conceal the identity of students, not maliciously cheat loans or breach contracts, cherish personal credit records, and be alert to the influence of online loans overdue on personal credit information. The second is to constantly improve the working mechanism of helping and rescuing. It is necessary to ensure that all student financial assistance policies are put in place, improve the management level of student financial assistance, and effectively protect the affordable needs of students with financial difficulties, such as tuition, accommodation and basic living expenses. We will improve the rescue mechanism for special difficulties, set up special funding funds, provide emergency assistance to students whose families have undergone major changes, and solve students’ temporary and urgent funding needs. For college students who have fallen into the mud of online lending, we should establish a special mechanism to guide them to solve the problem of online lending in a rational and effective way, strengthen psychological intervention and counseling, educate and guide them to cherish their lives and rationally deal with the difficulties they encounter.Encourage qualified colleges and universities to raise funds through multiple channels, support students to carry out extended learning, innovation and entrepreneurship, and meet students’ developmental needs. The third is to comprehensively guide and establish a correct consumption concept. To strengthen the education of students’ consumption concept, we should integrate the cultivation of students’ awareness of thrift with students’ daily ideological and political education. Pay attention to students’ consumption psychology, promptly correct erroneous concepts such as ahead consumption, excessive consumption and conformity consumption, and guide students to establish a scientific, rational and healthy consumption concept. Establish a daily monitoring mechanism, pay close attention to students’ abnormal consumption behavior, find out students’ tendency problems in life consumption, interpersonal consumption and entertainment consumption in time, take targeted measures to correct them, and strive to achieve early prevention, early education, early detection and early disposal.
Third, strengthen the network public opinion monitoring and reasonably guide public opinion.
Local network information departments should actively cooperate with local governments, universities, financial, education, public security and other administrative departments to do a good job in online interpretation and public opinion guidance to standardize the supervision and management policies of college students’ Internet consumption loans. For the use of college students’ Internet consumer loans for malicious speculation and rumors, guide relevant units to take the initiative to speak out and clarify the truth, and jointly create a good public opinion environment.
Four, increase the investigation and punishment of illegal crimes, and create a good financial environment.
Local public security organs should intensify the investigation and punishment of illegal and criminal acts in the Internet consumer loan business of college students according to law, severely crack down on criminal activities carried out by means of routine loans and usury against college students, intensify the crackdown on illegal and criminal activities such as illegal detention, kidnapping and violent collection, and crack down on illegal and criminal activities that infringe on citizens’ personal information according to law.
Secretariat of the Central Network Office of China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission General Office, China
General Office of the Ministry of Education, General Office of the Ministry of Public Security and General Office of the People’s Bank of China
February 24, 2021
