Inappropriate personal credit report content can easily lead to disputes over reputation rights and personality rights, experts believe
There is still a vacuum in credit information supervision
□ Our newspaper trainee reporter Sun Tianjiao
□ Our reporter Chen Lei
Recently, Ms. Fang from Nantong City, Jiangsu Province, when inquiring about personal credit reports, found that insulting words appeared in the “Working Unit” column of her career information.
This incident has caused heated public opinion: What impact will the insulting words in the personal credit report have?
Is the security of the credit investigation system still trustworthy?
In the information society, a personal credit report can be regarded as a person's financial identity certificate, which contains personal information such as personal loans, overdue repayments, and units. The basic personal information and credit information recorded in the report will affect the individual A series of financial actions such as borrowing and lending.
Experts interviewed by a reporter from the "Rules of Law Daily" believe that the insulting words in the personal credit report will not only affect the credit behavior of the party, but also constitute an infringement of the party's reputation rights, and also reflect the credit information and personal information management or existence Vacuum zone.
In terms of ensuring the safety of personal credit investigation, it is not only necessary for citizens to enhance their own awareness of rights protection, but also to strengthen the construction of a legal environment for personal credit investigation safety management. While ensuring that there are laws to follow, it is necessary to insist that law enforcement must be strict and violations must be strictly enforced. Research.
Insulting text in the report
Credit reporting system supervision failure
The "Work Unit" column in the personal credit report actually contains insulting words.
At the beginning of April this year, after Ms. Fang found out that there were unreasonable content in her personal credit report, she reported it to the credit management department of the Nantong Central Sub-branch of the People's Bank of China.
After investigation, this information was uploaded by Jinshang Consumer Finance Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Jinshang Consumer Finance Company).
In April 2018, Ms. Fang applied for a personal consumption loan of more than 160,000 yuan from the Nantong branch of Jinshang Consumer Finance Company, with a loan period of 36 months.
In February 2020, Ms. Fang applied to Jinshang Consumer Finance Company for an extension of the repayment period “because of the impact of the epidemic”.
Up to now, Ms. Fang still needs to repay the principal and interest of more than 70,000 yuan.
After the incident, the Taiyuan Central Sub-branch of the People's Bank of China ordered Jinshang Consumer Finance Company to delete this information based on its jurisdiction.
In response to this incident, the Taiyuan Central Sub-branch of the People's Bank of China held two interviews with Jinshang Consumer Finance Corporation and its major shareholders on April 8 and May 25.
On April 8, the Taiyuan Central Sub-branch of the People's Bank of China interviewed Jinshang Consumer Finance Company, requesting it to verify the situation according to law, immediately correct the wrong information, and do a good job of communicating with customers to protect the legitimate rights and interests of customers.
On May 25, the main person in charge of the Taiyuan Central Sub-branch of the People's Bank of China once again interviewed Jinshang Consumer Finance Company and its major shareholders, and on the basis of reiterating the regulatory opinions, seriously proposed follow-up rectification requirements.
In the middle of the night on May 25, Jinshang Consumer Finance Company issued a statement on its official website, apologizing for the improper statement in Ms. Fang’s personal credit report and the impact on it.
On May 26, the Taiyuan Central Sub-branch of the People's Bank of China issued an announcement through its WeChat public account, deciding to suspend the inquiry authority of the credit investigation system of Jinshang Consumer Finance Co., Ltd. from now on, instructing it to make internal rectification and effectively implement various supervision requirements.
Ren Chao, a professor at the School of Economics and Law at East China University of Political Science and Law, told a reporter from the Rule of Law Daily that personal credit information plays an important role in preventing personal credit risks such as housing loans, auto loans, national student loans, and credit cards.
Ren Chao said that the personal credit report contains personal information such as personal loans, overdue repayments, and units. This information content will affect personal financial lending behavior. The insulting words that appear in it will not only affect the credit behavior of the parties, but also constitute Violation of the party’s right of reputation.
Liu Junhai, a professor at the Renmin University of China Law School and director of the Institute of Commercial Law, said in an interview with a reporter from the Rule of Law Daily that this incident exposed many loopholes in the risk control and compliance system of Jinshang Consumer Finance Corporation, and its practices seriously violated The basic principles of knowing, consenting, necessary, fair and reasonable uploading personal credit information damage the personal rights and interests of users.
Liu Junhai also noticed the issue of the responsibility of the supervisor in this incident.
"The market will fail, and regulators should not fail, but now there is a phenomenon of double failure. Regarding the supervision of the credit investigation system, we should firmly grasp the'delegation of control and service'. While streamlining administration and delegating power, we must also prevent it from appearing. Such a low-level error."
Frequent personal credit reporting disputes
The regulatory system needs to be improved
The personal credit information system built by the Credit Information Center of the People's Bank of China was officially launched in 2006.
According to Zhang Zihong, director of the Credit Information Center of the People's Bank of China, in a series of press conferences on "Financial Support to Ensure Market Entities", as of the end of December 2020, the credit information system had included 1.1 billion natural persons, 60.923 million enterprises and other organizations' credit information. information.
According to the administrative penalty information published on the official website of the People's Bank of China, recently, some financial institutions have been punished for personal credit management issues.
For example, Haibowan Huanghe Village Bank Co., Ltd. in Wuhai City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region violated safety management requirements, provided bad personal information without informing the information subject in advance, failed to submit personal credit information accurately, completely, and in a timely manner. The Haicheng Center Sub-branch imposed a fine of 71,000 yuan.
Jinshang Consumer Finance Company was punished for personal credit information before the incident.
In August 2019, Jinshang Consumer Finance Co., Ltd. was ordered to correct within a time limit by the Taiyuan Central Branch of the People’s Bank of China for violating the “Regulations on the Administration of Credit Reporting Industry” and inquiring about personal information without consent. The company was fined RMB 500,000 and was directly responsible. The officer in charge was fined RMB 50,000.
In addition to administrative punishment information, relevant cases of China Judgment Document Network show that legal disputes caused by improper personal credit information are frequent.
For example, after the user repaid the loan through the third-party platform, the financial institution did not update its credit information immediately; the bad credit record uploaded by the financial institution was deemed by the user as infringing on personal reputation and personality rights.
Personal credit report, as an important personal financial identity information certificate of a citizen, why is there a dispute over its content and management?
Are there loopholes in personal credit management?
According to Ren Chao, the personal credit report is issued by the People’s Bank of China’s credit information system to record personal credit information. However, the relevant credit information is not entered by the People’s Bank of China, but by individuals who have a credit relationship with the individual. Some institutions upload.
Personal credit reporting agencies collect personal credit information from financial institutions, public security organs, courts, public utilities, etc., and aggregate, process, store, and form a personal credit information database. When various departments and units inquire about a certain credit reporting agency When making personal credit reports, personal credit reporting agencies call relevant information data from the personal credit information database, classify, aggregate, process, and analyze these data to form a personal credit report, and provide it to the outside according to the request and relevant regulations.
"The People's Bank of China Credit Information Center, as a third-party organization, is only responsible for objectively collecting and recording consumer credit information reported by commercial banks. There may be a vacuum in credit information and personal information management." Ren Chao said.
In Ren Chao's view, the current credit reporting system's regulatory system has not yet been fully formed.
"Nowadays, more and more financial institutions have developed online businesses. Internet credit reporting agencies or big data companies have a wide range of online businesses, which has brought about changes in credit information collection methods and information security authorization methods, making it difficult and responsible for business process tracking. It is difficult to define."
Ren Chao believes that the current regulatory standards are not yet perfect.
The basis for the inspection of credit reporting services is mainly the "Regulations on the Administration of Credit Reporting Industry" and the "Interim Measures for the Management of Basic Personal Credit Information Databases", and more clear rules are yet to be issued.
At the same time, there is a lack of regulatory standards for credit investigation activities in the context of the Internet.
Strengthen the construction of the rule of law environment
Improve the technical review process
On January 21, 2013, the State Council issued the "Regulations on the Management of Credit Reporting Industry", which came into effect on March 15, 2013, providing a basis for the management and development of the credit reporting industry.
The "Regulations on the Administration of Credit Reporting Industry" clearly stipulates that credit reporting agencies should take reasonable measures to ensure the accuracy of the information they provide.
The regulations also restrict the collection and uploading of personal credit information by financial institutions, and clarify the legal responsibilities that must be assumed if the regulations are violated.
For example, Article 41 of the "Regulations on the Administration of Credit Reporting Industry" stipulates that the information provider violates the provisions of these regulations by providing unlawfully disclosed personal bad information to credit reporting agencies and financial credit information basic databases without notifying the information subject in advance. If the circumstances are serious or cause serious consequences, the credit investigation department of the State Council or its dispatched agency shall impose a fine of 20,000 yuan up to 200,000 yuan on the unit, and a fine of 10,000 yuan up to 50,000 yuan on the individual.
So, are the laws and regulations promulgated around the management of credit investigations sufficient to ensure the safety of personal credit investigations?
Ren Chao believes that the current legal system related to credit investigation business management is not perfect.
First of all, the balance between information sharing and personal privacy protection needs to be regulated by legislation.
Currently, there is no special legislation specifically aimed at the protection of personal information security.
At the same time, there are no clear legal boundaries for personal privacy and the protection of the rights and interests of personal information subjects. How to regulate the collection and use of a large amount of personal information generated by the operation of Internet credit reporting agencies, and how to bear legal responsibility for infringements on the rights and interests of personal information subjects, etc. No specific regulations.
In Ren Chao's view, there is no effective way to resolve objections involving Internet credit reporting agencies.
The "Regulations on the Management of Credit Investigation Industry" provides certain institutional guarantees for individuals to maintain their own credit information security, such as granting information subjects the right to object and complain. However, in practice, most Internet credit reporting agencies have not provided effective personal objections Application and complaint channels.
Ren Chao suggested that in order to ensure the safety of personal credit investigation, it is necessary to strengthen the construction of the rule of law environment.
With the development of the Internet and the advent of the era of big data, the problems in the practice of credit investigation have become more diversified and complicated. The Regulations on the Administration of Credit Investigation are in urgent need of more detailed supporting measures.
At the same time, it is necessary to expedite the promulgation of a special personal information security protection law to clarify the rights and obligations of personal information subjects, credit reporting agencies and other parties.
Ren Chao also suggested improving the scope of credit information security protection.
The financial credit information of all individuals on the Internet should be included in the scope of credit information security protection.
Its scope includes a series of sensitive information such as customer-related transaction information recorded by the Internet financial platform, financial behavior habits and behavior preferences of personal information subjects on the Internet, and so on.
Peng Chan, assistant professor at the Law School of Peking University, mentioned in an interview with a reporter from the Rule of Law Daily that in the case of massive information input in the backend of the credit investigation system, the review mechanism is prone to failure to review manually entered non-standardized and non-standardized information. When it is in place, this also exposes the loopholes in the audit system without formatting, standardization, and standardization.
“Therefore, the review must be strengthened and improved in terms of technology and review process.” In addition, individuals’ right to check and correct their own credit reports need to be protected, and the right of individuals to inquire about their own credit information or credit reports should not be restricted. .
Liu Junhai believes that, as far as managers are concerned, the supervision and punishment of financial institutions by the supervisory authorities are mostly limited to criticism and ordering rectification, and they are not deterrent.
It is recommended to upgrade and revise the "Credit Investigation Management Regulations" in the next step, increase regulatory measures, and enrich punitive responsibilities, including credit sanctions, administrative penalties including but not limited to fines for confiscation, order to suspend business for rectification, and even restrict its business expansion.
The experts also provided suggestions on how to maintain the safety management of personal credit report reports for the tripartite participants of individual citizens, financial institutions, and credit reporting agencies.
Liu Junhai suggested that individual credit investigation subjects should be scientific, civilized and rational consumers, develop the habit of checking their own credit investigation reports regularly, and actively claim their rights if the content is found to be untrue.
For financial institutions that upload credit information, Ren Chao believes that they should have a certain degree of social authority to ensure that the personal credit products they provide can be generally recognized and accepted by the public.
Ren Chao believes that at the stage of personal credit information collection, credit reporting agencies should choose appropriate credit reporting data source units to ensure the originality of the source of personal credit information; in the process of organizing and processing personal credit information, credit reporting agencies must Follow reasonable procedures and scientific methods to ensure the consistency of information before and after processing, and effectively protect the authenticity and security of personal credit information.