Huaxia Bank stands accused by the Chinese banking regulator of infringing the rights of consumers following a round of on-site inspections by the authority.
The China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC) recently issued the “Notice Concerning Huaxia Bank’s Infringement of the Rights and Interests of Consumers” (关于华夏银行侵害消费者权益情况的通报), after officials conducted on-site inspections of the Beijing-based lender.
The Notice accuses Huaxia of a total of seven regulatory breaches, including “selling products to retail consumers that exceed their risk-bearing capability,” and “obtaining, storing, transmitting and using personal information in breach of regulations.”
CBIRC said that Huaxia had also failed to properly disclose the interest rates for online loan products in its promotional materials; engaged in the “bundled” sale of personal injury insurance to borrowers at branches in Guangzhou, Wuhan, Chengdu and Xiamen, and used document formatting to force applicants for credit cards to accept other services.
Other regulatory breaches include transferring costs to micro-and-small enterprise borrowers at 32 branches, including collateral assessment and registration fees; and collecting excessive annual credit card fees.
