Nie Guochun
On June 2, China Everbright Bank Credit Card Center and China Minsheng Bank Credit Card Center received 800,000 yuan of fines respectively due to serious and imprudent credit card collection.
The reporter of "China Consumer News" found that the number of complaints from the credit card centers of the two punished banks will remain high in 2021, and many cardholders claim that they have encountered violent collections.
Heavy fines for illegal collection
On June 2, the Beijing Bureau of China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (hereinafter referred to as the Beijing Bureau of Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission) issued two consecutive fines:
China Everbright Bank Credit Card Center (hereinafter referred to as China Everbright Credit Card Center) was ordered to make corrections due to serious imprudence in the collection of credit cards, and was given an administrative penalty of a total fine of 800,000 yuan. The penalty date is May 26 this year.
China Minsheng Bank Credit Card Center (hereinafter referred to as Minsheng Credit Card Center) was also ordered to make corrections and fined 800,000 yuan on the same day.
The reporter noticed that the basis for the Beijing Banking and Insurance Regulatory Bureau's punishment is Article 46 of the "Banking Supervision and Administration Law", which stipulates: "A banking financial institution has one of the following circumstances, and the banking regulatory agency of the State Council shall order it to make corrections. , and impose a fine of not less than 200,000 yuan but not more than 500,000 yuan..."
A banker told a reporter from China Consumer Daily that the fine of 800,000 yuan exceeded the upper limit of fines stipulated in the article, indicating that the credit card centers of the two banks have committed a number of violations of laws and regulations, and the circumstances are relatively serious.
More complaints about violent collection
In March this year, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission issued the "Circular on Consumer Complaints in the Banking Industry in the Fourth Quarter of 2021".
According to the circular, among the banking consumer complaints received and forwarded by the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission and its local offices, complaints involving credit card business are the most concentrated, accounting for 49.6% of the total number of complaints.
The reporter's statistics found that in 2021, Everbright credit card consumption complaints will reach 14,967, ranking first among joint-stock banks, of which two quarters topped the complaint list.
The number of complaints about Minsheng Credit Cards exceeded 13,000 in the whole year, ranking fifth among joint-stock banks.
What kind of violations are causing so many complaints?
On June 13, the reporter searched the Heimao Complaint Platform with the keyword "Everbright Bank Collection" and found 853 related complaints.
Among them, many consumers complained that the Everbright Credit Card Center violated the collection, including entrusting outsourcing companies to violently collect collections, leaking personal information, threats by phone and text messages, and telephone harassment.
Minsheng Credit Card has nearly 600 collection complaints on the platform.
Consumer Miss Luo complained on May 28 that after negotiating with the bank for instalment repayment, she received two collection text messages early in the morning, the content of which reads, "You have been officially listed as a prosecutor by our bank, and the court documents will be delivered by courier. Send the household registration address, please handle the case before 3:00 p.m.”.
Most of the complainants reported that the collectors of the Minsheng Credit Card Center adopted methods such as door-to-door intimidation and continuous phone calls.
The reporter's investigation found that the collection of credit card violations has become the hardest hit area for consumer complaints, which can also be verified from the 2021 complaint data of the Guangdong banking industry released by the Guangdong Banking and Insurance Regulatory Bureau.
The report shows that in 2021, the bureau received a total of 16,436 complaints, of which 10,492 were transferred to credit card complaints. The credit card business complaints mainly focused on negotiating repayment, reflecting collection and credit dispute disputes, interest fees and pricing disputes, and the proportions were respectively were 60.67%, 19.78% and 17.33%.
Standardize credit card collection
On January 1 this year, the "Guidelines for Collection of Credit Cards (Trial)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Guidelines") issued by the China Banking Association began to be implemented.
The "Guidelines" make it clear that without the consent of the debtor, the collection personnel are strictly prohibited from making calls and overseas visits to collect collections after 10 pm and before 8 am, and the frequency of calls should be controlled within a reasonable and necessary range.
The Guidelines require that collection or harassment of a third party unrelated to the debt is strictly prohibited. Contacting a third party must not reveal the debtor's detailed debt information and debt amount, but may ask for the debtor's contact information, or ask them to act on their behalf. Tell the debtor to contact the bank; when the third party expressly requests not to be contacted, and it is confirmed that he is an unrelated third party, the collector should limit subsequent contact behavior.
On May 19, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission issued the "Administrative Measures for the Protection of Consumer Rights and Interests of Banking and Insurance Institutions (Draft for Comments)", which prohibits collection behaviors and must not exist: without legal procedures or consumers' consent, to the Debt duty officers inform specific debt information and personal sensitive information; fraudulently use the names of administrative organs, judicial organs, etc. to collect collections; resort to violence, intimidation, fraud, threats and other improper means;
Dong Zhengwei, a lawyer from Beijing Lianggao Law Firm, said in an interview with a reporter from China Consumer News:
Collection agencies pretending to be public prosecutors to collect collections, calling and texting relatives and friends of borrowers, malicious harassment and other collection behaviors are soft violent collections, and are illegal acts explicitly prohibited by the regulatory authorities.
If a consumer encounters a fake public prosecutor’s law collection or a door-to-door collection, they can ask the collection personnel to provide the detailed work unit and contact information, keep the evidence in time, and then complain to the regulatory agency or call the police.