Information collection requires the consent of the person, and the personal credit investigation business must be licensed to operate——
The development of credit reporting industry blocked the side door and opened the front door
Our reporter Chen Guojing Guo Ziyuan
The construction of China's credit investigation market system and social credit system is rapidly increasing.
A few days ago, the People’s Bank of China issued the "Measures for the Administration of Credit Investigation Services" (hereinafter referred to as the "Measures") to standardize the entire process of credit investigation services. If personal credit information is not to be collected excessively, the information collection requires the consent of the person and clearly informs the purpose of the collection, and the use of credit Information needs to obtain explicit consent and authorization, and must not be misused.
In addition, the "Measures" blocked the side door and opened the front door in response to the non-compliant loan assistance behavior of the "credit-like" network platform that has attracted much market attention.
On the one hand, it is clear that personal credit investigation services must be licensed to operate, and "alternative data" applications are included in credit investigation supervision; on the other hand, continue to expand the coverage of credit information sharing, develop market-oriented credit investigation agencies in an orderly manner, and increase multi-level credit investigation supply.
The industry predicts that more market-oriented credit reporting agencies will be approved for establishment in the future.
The credit reporting market urgently needs to be standardized
Why is credit information important?
It is not only an evaluation standard for market entities to obtain loan funds and participate in social and economic life, but also the basis for China to promote inclusive finance and increase the proportion of credit loans for small and micro enterprises.
In this sense, credit reporting is an economic activity. Credit reporting agencies collect, sort, store, and process credit information of enterprises and individuals, and provide it to information users.
The importance of China's credit information market has grown from scratch and grown from small to large.
In January 2013, the State Council promulgated the "Regulations on the Management of Credit Reporting Industry", which established the basic rules of the credit reporting industry and initially solved the unreliable problems in the development of the credit reporting industry; in November of the same year, the Central Bank announced the "Administrative Measures for Credit Reporting Institutions" , Strengthen the supervision and management of credit reporting agencies.
Subsequently, China’s credit reporting market developed rapidly. Up to now, two market-oriented personal credit reporting agencies, 134 corporate credit reporting agencies and 59 credit rating agencies have been approved to form a central bank credit reporting center and a market-oriented credit reporting agency. The development pattern of complementary advantages plays an important role in increasing the effective supply of credit information, serving the financing of small, medium and micro enterprises, and supporting the development of the real economy.
In recent years, with the rapid development of the digital economy, new technologies such as the Internet and big data have continued to infiltrate the credit investigation field, and many new changes have taken place in the credit investigation business.
"However, due to the lack of targeted institutional norms, the phenomenon of'unlicensed driving' and disorderly development in the credit reporting market exist to varying degrees." Dong Ximiao, chief researcher of China Merchants Finance, said that the publication and implementation of the "Measures" is imperative. .
In order to effectively rectify market chaos and clarify the source of business, the "Measures" first clarified the scope of credit information and the boundaries of credit management—credit information includes not only basic information used to determine the credit status of enterprises and individuals, and loan information, but also Other information, and analysis and evaluation information based on this information.
This means that the "substitute data" generated by the "quasi-credit investigation" Internet platform will also be included in the supervision, and will enter the standardized development stage together with market-oriented personal credit investigation agencies.
"The compliant development of credit investigation business is conducive to the healthy growth of the credit investigation industry and can better promote the high-quality development of the credit investigation industry." said Liu Xinhai, executive deputy director of the Credit Management Committee of the Quanlian M&A Association and vice president of the Beijing Credit Association .
Protect the legitimate rights and interests of information subjects
Facing the new situation, how to protect the legitimate rights and interests of information subjects?
How to ensure the security of credit information?
Prior to this, a variety of APP peeping users has aroused heated discussion in the society.
The "Measures" emphasizes that in order to solve the problem of "driving without a license", it is necessary to obtain legal qualifications to engage in credit investigation, further standardize the entire process of credit investigation, and strengthen compliance requirements for credit investigation agencies, information providers, and information users .
Faced with the pain points, the "Measures" set out specific and clear provisions for the entire process of collection, sorting, storage, processing, provision, and use of credit information.
In the collection process, the collection of personal credit information requires the consent of the information subject and clearly informs the purpose of the collection; the collection of personal credit information should follow the principle of “minimality and necessity” and must not be excessively collected. Credit reporting agencies must not deceive, coerce, or induce methods. Collecting credit information must not charge the information subject, and must not collect information from illegal channels.
In the process of sorting, preservation, and processing, the "Measures" provide for the handling of personal bad information that has attracted much attention.
The retention period of bad personal information is 5 years. If the retention period expires, the credit reporting agency shall delete the bad personal information in external services. If it is used as sample data, it shall be anonymized.
In the link of provision and use, the use of credit information must be based on lawful and legitimate purposes, and the information subject’s explicit consent and authorization must be obtained, and no abuse shall be allowed.
"The new regulations provide more provisions on the information subject's right to consent and the right to know, and at the same time give the individual information subject the right to object and complain." said Dong Ximiao, chief researcher of China Merchants United Finance. According to the "Measures", the information subject believes that there are errors or omissions in the information. , Has the right to raise an objection; believes that its lawful rights and interests have been infringed, has the right to make a complaint, and clarifies how to deal with objections and complaints.
It is worth noting that the "Measures" has a special chapter on "Credit Information Security", which stipulates that credit reporting agencies should implement a network security level protection system, formulate a security management system, and take effective protective measures to ensure the security of the credit reporting system.
On the premise of ensuring information security, the new regulations allow the use of credit information in accordance with laws and regulations in cross-border trade, investment and financing and other economic and financial activities.
However, credit reporting agencies must review the identity of overseas information users and the purpose of credit information, and must not endanger national security.
Strengthen the supervision of "Credit-like" platforms
With the explicit inclusion of "alternative data" under supervision, the pressure for business transformation of some "credit-like" Internet platforms has increased.
Benefiting from the development of mobile internet and big data, some platform companies in China have obtained a large amount of customer information, with e-commerce companies and payment companies as typical representatives.
This information contains massive amounts of credit data.
With resources in hand, many platform companies have begun to do loan assistance business with commercial banks, especially small and medium-sized banks. Loans granted by customers can be described as "mutually beneficial and win-win".
But the potential risks cannot be ignored.
"When the head platform company develops various services such as e-commerce, payment, search, etc., it obtains massive amounts of information such as the user's identity, account, transaction, consumption, social interaction, etc., and then identifies and judges the personal credit status, and develops with financial institutions in the name of loan assistance. Credit business cooperation is equivalent to carrying out personal credit investigation without permission.” Central Bank Governor Yi Gang recently publicly stated that the leading platform companies provide financial services such as wealth management, credit and insurance under the same platform, which magnifies the cross-border financial risk. The possibility of product and cross-market contagion.
The many chaos that once appeared in the credit market have sounded the alarm.
"Some Internet platforms lack sufficient data and information management experience, lose customer information, and even leak customer data." Mo Xiugen, executive director and research director of the Institute of Inclusive Finance of Renmin University of China, said that some platforms collude with borrowers. Take bank loans; in order to pursue higher service fees, the platform deliberately lowers the asset quality requirements pushed to the bank and blindly expands the loan scale.
Many industry insiders analyzed that because the "Measures" further clarified that personal credit reporting services must be licensed for operation, and clearly defined that the application of "alternative data" is included in credit reporting supervision, this is equivalent to blocking the barbaric growth of "credit reporting" Internet platforms. soil.
At the same time, the supervisory authorities have not closed the door for cooperation between “quasi-credit” platforms and licensed credit reporting agencies and financial institutions.
Regarding institutions that provide related services, the "Measures" propose that personal credit reporting agencies should report to the People's Bank of China to the information providers who cooperate with them to collect, sort, process, and analyze personal credit information.
It is worth noting that while strengthening supervision and standardizing the development of the credit investigation market, it will also further increase the quantity and quality of supply.
The relevant person in charge of the central bank said in response to a reporter's question that it will expand the coverage of credit information sharing, develop market-oriented credit reporting agencies in an orderly manner, and increase the supply of multi-level credit reporting.
It is expected that more market-oriented credit reporting agencies will be approved for establishment in the next step.