Today, more than 100 days have passed since the implementation of the new credit card regulations, and the pace of standardization and adjustment of the credit card business is constantly improving.
A recent investigation by a reporter from Beijing Business Daily found that in addition to speeding up the clean-up of sleep credit cards, in the process of instalment business marketing, credit card account managers also took the initiative to describe the way of displaying interest and charges to cardholders more clearly than before. "Vaguely taken".
From the era of "race to the ground" to the era of stock competition, the credit card business has been constantly changing to "refined operation". The next step is to improve the cardholder experience and increase the utilization rate of credit cards through marketing and operations.
Interest rate display is more transparent
In early July this year, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission and the People's Bank of China jointly issued the "Notice on Further Promoting the Standardized and Healthy Development of Credit Card Business" (i.e. the new credit card regulations), covering credit card business management, card issuance and marketing, credit risk control, capital flow, installment business, cooperative institutions, etc. put forward higher requirements.
It is clarified that banks should effectively improve the standardization and transparency of credit card interest and fee management, and display the highest annualized interest rate level in an obvious way.
It has been more than 100 days since the release of the new credit card regulations. A reporter from Beijing Business Daily noticed that a more obvious change is that in the process of installment business marketing, the previously "ambiguous" interest and fee standards have become clearer.
"Hello, I am the credit card account manager of a certain bank. I saw that you have generated a new bill, and I recommend you to apply for the credit card installment business launched by our bank"... The cardholder Xiaojie (pseudonym) recently received a call to promote credit card installments What impressed her most about the business call was that compared with before, the account manager now introduces the installment rates in more detail during the marketing process.
Xiaojie told a reporter from Beijing Business Daily, "The sales calls I received in the past were just casual, usually they first asked me if I wanted to do installment business, and then introduced the benefits of installment business. I have made it clear that the credit card installment fee rate and the zero charge for early repayment allow me to understand the business processing information more clearly, and the experience is much better than before.”
According to the information provided by the cardholders, a reporter from Beijing Business Daily found that the bank's credit card app also clearly displayed each handling fee after the installment of the total credit card bill and the approximate conversion of the cardholder's transaction based on simple interest. Annualized interest rate.
Taking 3 periods, 6 periods, 9 periods, and 12 periods as an example, the approximate annualized interest rates after conversion for each transaction are 17.73%, 16.88%, 17.59%, and 17.9%, respectively.
In order to allow consumers to clearly understand the real cost of borrowing, a reporter from Beijing Business Daily noticed that many large and medium-sized banks have expressed the approximate converted annualized interest rate to cardholders in the credit card installment business, and some banks have also expressed their interest in the installment business. The description in the .
For example, Hua Xia Bank recently adjusted the charge item "installation fee" for credit card installment business (including but not limited to bill installment, flexible installment, automatic installment, and easy access gold, etc.) The relevant expressions of "approximately converted annualized rate" are adjusted to "installment rate" and "approximately converted annualized rate".
Zhongyuan Bank has also previously released the "Explanation of Credit Card Service Charges and Interest Calculation Methods", which explains the calculation method of overdraft interest, the method of charging annual credit card fees and the calculation rules of credit card installment fee.
Su Xiaorui, a senior analyst in the financial industry of Analysys, said that the display of interest and fees is more transparent, on the one hand, it is conducive to the right of financial consumers to know and choose, and on the other hand, it will also help to promote the standardized operation of banking institutions, in order to create a healthy, An orderly industry competition environment has laid a solid foundation.
'Sleep' credit card clearing speeds up
As an important carrier of bank retail business, credit cards have already entered the "Red Sea Market". In the process of changing from extensive operations to refined operations, the new regulations have also formulated clear requirements, including that banking financial institutions are not allowed to issue cards based on the number of cards issued or customers. As a single or main assessment indicator, the proportion of long-term sleep credit cards to the total number of cards issued by the institution shall not exceed 20% at any point in time.
Since then, many banks including Guangzhou Bank, Zhejiang Mintai Commercial Bank, Muyang Rural Commercial Bank, Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank, China Everbright Bank and other banks have issued announcements to cancel cards that have not been actively traded for a long time.
For example, the Bank of Guangzhou Credit Card Center stated that according to the relevant requirements of the regulatory authorities, the bank will successively cancel the cards under the cardholder's name that have not undergone active transactions for a long time. After the card is canceled, the card cannot be used normally.
If the cardholder still needs to use the credit card, he or she should initiate at least one purchase of any amount before canceling the card.
Zhejiang Mintai Commercial Bank said that from November 15, it will gradually stop using the card service and apply for sleep credit cards that have not been activated for more than 12 months or have been activated but have not undergone active transactions for more than 12 consecutive months. Sales procedures.
Earlier, the China Everbright Bank Credit Card Center issued a notice saying that it would suspend services for long-term unused credit cards.
At the same time, in order to strengthen account management, there are also banks that "shot" to adjust the upper limit of the number of cards held by credit card customers.
The Bank of Zhengzhou has set a limit on the number of cards issued by the institution for a single customer from September 1. The maximum number of valid credit cards held by the same customer in the bank is 8 (including 8), and cancelled cards are not counted.
Clearing up sleep cards in batches and limiting the upper limit of the number of cards issued has aroused industry concerns. Some people believe that sleep credit cards account for a large proportion, which will not only occupy a lot of costs, but may also lead to potential risks such as fraud.
There are also views that the process of cleaning up sleep credit cards and limiting the number of cards issued may have a certain impact on retail business growth.
In an interview with a reporter from Beijing Business Daily, Yu Baicheng, president of Zero One Research Institute, said that with the release of the new regulations, banks will shift to quality assessment dimensions such as activity, and many banks have begun to clean up sleep credit cards and sleep credit cards. It does not mean that the income of the credit card business will decline. By improving products and operational capabilities, and enhancing the stickiness and depth of use of cardholders, quality growth can still be achieved.
At present, in the stage of credit card business from the number of re-opened cards to the re-use rate, a very important action is to improve the cardholder experience and make more cardholders active through marketing and operation.
A person from the bank's credit card center also holds the same view. In his view, "the essence of cleaning up is not to clear the sleep credit card to complete the task, but to focus on how to improve the utilization rate of credit cards. It did not affect the issuance of new credit cards by our bank, but the relationship manager is more willing to start with high-quality users, not focusing on quantity but on quality.”
Improve scenarios and personalized service capabilities
In the era of credit card stock competition, the old way of "staking the horse" by banks has "failed". The next step should be to change their thinking in time, to deeply cultivate the rigid needs of consumers, to match products with consumers, and to upgrade credit card products in a timely manner. .
In the semi-annual report, many banks also frequently mentioned scenario-based and youthful credit card business, trying to seek breakthroughs in new financial scenarios.
For example, Postal Savings Bank mentioned that it will gradually expand the customer base of rural credit cards on the basis of controllable risks; Agricultural Bank has launched key products such as car owner cards and Constellation Cards; Shanghai Pudong Development Bank mentioned that it will launch special carbon credit cards of Shanghai Pudong Development Credit Cards in the next stage. Accounts, Green Points Products.
In the future, credit cards will still be one of the focuses of banks' retail banking business.
"In the past two years, in response to the development and innovation of credit cards, regulators have also issued some targeted policies, such as adjusting bank card assessment indicators and encouraging banks to explore innovative models such as online credit card business pilots. In the future, through the injection of technological capabilities It is the driving force for the sustainable development of credit cards, which is the driving force for the sustainable development of credit cards.
In terms of overall strategy, Su Xiaorui suggested that under the background of accelerated integration of online and offline scenarios, the credit card business needs to strengthen online platforms and service capabilities to explore integrated operations, and use the "card + app + scenario + rights" business ecosystem to help new breakthroughs and On the one hand, we have an in-depth insight into the needs of cardholders and carry out targeted interaction with cardholders to help extend the usage time of credit cards; Integrated operation to build a rights system, to motivate cardholders to use and increase business income through service experience.
Beijing Business Daily reporter Song Yitong