Prepaid merchants frequently "explode thunder", and cure chronic illnesses must "strike seven inches"

  From the break of the capital chain of an education and training institution to the difficulty of refunding a long-term apartment, to the large-scale closure of a restaurant brand... Whenever prepaid merchants "explode", consumers will face the problem of difficulty in protecting their rights.

Some experts reminded us that we should consider regulatory measures for the prepayment model from the perspective of protecting consumers and maintaining the order of the financial market.

(See China Youth Daily on January 12)

  In recent years, prepayment has been widely used in fitness, catering, education and training industries.

Under ideal conditions, prepayment is a win-win situation for consumers and merchants. However, due to factors such as lack of integrity by some merchants, merchants often dig pits for consumers and run away with payment.

China Consumers Association statistics show that in the third quarter of 2020, the National Consumers Association accepted more than 230,000 complaints about prepayment.

  How to effectively supervise the prepaid model is a test of supervisory wisdom, and relevant departments have been exploring.

As early as 2012, the Ministry of Commerce issued the "Measures for the Administration of Single-Purpose Commercial Prepaid Cards (Trial)", implementing the system of "recording of card issuers within 30 days" and "fund depository"; Jiangsu, Shanghai, Shenzhen and other places also passed local legislation , Set up a "7-day cooling-off period refund", giving consumers a certain period of "right to regret".

However, from the actual situation, these measures have not effectively eliminated the risky problems in the prepaid model.

  In essence, the prepayments paid by consumers to merchants are the legal property of consumers, and merchants have no right to dispose of or embezzle at will.

Even if the merchant wants to use the prepayment, it can only use the goods or services that the consumer has already consumed in accordance with the prior agreement between the two parties.

  The hidden risks of the prepaid model are not only consumer issues but also people's livelihood issues.

Some businesses "run away", on the surface it is a case of consumer rights protection, in fact it is the result of improper expansion of financial credit.

In this regard, it is necessary to uphold the "snake and fight seven inches" thinking, raise the supervision of prepayment to the level of maintaining normal financial order, and increase related responsibilities regarding how financial institutions send money to merchants in an orderly manner, how merchants use prepayments The subject’s violation of the law and the cost of dishonesty should build a more complete system to build a "firewall" for prepayment.

  Recently, relevant leaders of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission pointed out that “we will make every effort to protect the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, resolutely crack down on illegal fund-raising, illegal storage and financial fraud, maintain a high degree of vigilance against various illegal and disguised investment and financing activities, and will improve the accuracy of supervision.” The supervision of the prepaid model can be incorporated into the scope of financial supervision in a timely manner, so it is more promising to eliminate various risks in the prepaid model.

  Zhang Zhiquan